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- 2340-2200 BC
- Sceau cylindre
- Dating back to ancient times: an model/type of the bull connected to corn within Mesopotamia.
- Connection between the fertility of the bull & the fertility of the earth represented by corn
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- Ca. 1750-1600 BC
- Late Old Babylonian style -> importance astrology!
- The nude female fig. combined with a war- or stormgod, could represent qualities like luck, worthiness & protection, but the exact meaning of the female fig varies per composition
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Varuna is a Hindu entity ruling the heavens and controlling the moral codes and laws of men. Varuna & Mithras were often called upon together, establishing a connection/association between the entities. Within that connection Mithras represents the legal code (alliance between men) and Varuna the magical aspects (relation between gods and men). The were sometimes called the "Mighty bulls".
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Within the Aryan civilization Mithras was known as a god of the heavens and sky.
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- Discovered around 1907
- Mitanni king used a formula calling upon different deities to be a witness of the sacrality of the treaty. One of those deities was Mithra(s)
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WIthin the Old Persian empire Ahura Mazda was a Zoroastrian entity that created the universe and kept the cosmic order balanced. Mithras was often seen as the bringer of wealth, fertility and protector of the cattle.
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- Cultural interchange/influence
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- ca. 480-470 BC
- Persepolis, Tripylon, Eastern Gate in Iran
- The godly nature of the Mesopotamian skygod was represented by a Arian symbol for the sky (influence from Egypt). The Persians took that symbol and used it to represent their greatest deity. It was used within works like this one and on seals.
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- During the reign of Artaxerxes II king of Persia
- In connection to Anahita (rivergod; goddess of generation & love). She became the Persian personification of Ishtar, consequently that can mean that Mithras could be a personification of Tammuz, or at least assimilated a few characteristics of Tammuz.
- This contamination (transforming Mithras from an Arian hero of the heavens and sky into a deity trapped in a cave with the coming and going of seasons) could have happened here, with Anahita.
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- From the early 3rd C BC
- Last king of Pergamon passed his empire to the Romans, who made it 'Provincia Asia'
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- Wars end after the Romans assimilated Asia with the victory of Pompeius
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- Ca. 2nd C BC
- Bas-reliëf
- Extra fig: torchbearers - symb: the descent & transcend
- Tail ends in 3 corncobs: dying bull brings fertility - connection between fertility bull and fertility of the earth represented via corn
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Soldiers within the Roman Empire created catacombs and caves to practice their Mithraic religion, against the will of their emperor. God Mithras was depicted as a bull-killing god instead of the god riding the heavens.
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- Ca. 1st C BC
- Italy, Ostia Antica - Early ex. of a mithraeum in Italy
- The cave represented the womb of the earth (from Magna Mater cult in Asia) (< > Greek/Roman gods/cult), often decorated with stars, planets, the seasons & zodiac
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- After the Roman Empire conquered Asia, there grew a constant communication between Italy and Asia
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- 5 sculpt: King Antiochus, goddess Tyche, Zeus-Oromasdes, Apollo-Mithras & Heracles-Artagnes
- Mount Nemrut, Turkije
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- Mithras with sun rays around his head, stars on his cap & sword in hand - Mithras as warrior-king of the sky
- Mount Nemrut, West Terrace, Turkije
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ca. 2nd C, Statue -
First half of the 2nd C, Reliëf -
First half of the 2nd C, Reliëf -
- Dated shortly after the year 100
- In a marmer
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Ca. Half of the 2nd C, (influence of Hellenistic religions gets transferred to the Roman soldiers)
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- Ca. 150-230
- In Mithraeum I in Ptuj, Slovenia
- Mithras carries the bull while crossing the ocean, that separates heaven and earth
- Inscription transl: “For the Transitus, Caius Caecina Calpurnius bought back the temple and restored it.”
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- Dated ca. sixty years after the marmer in Rome
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- Area's around the Donau-delta were incorporated within the Roman fortification system
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- Ca. 3th C
- The birth of Mithras
- fig. lying down: fatherly fig or godly personification of the birthplace of Mithras
- upper left: Victoria fig
- Cautes & Cautopates pull Mithras by the arms from the rock, in his righthand a knife, in the left a torch
- inscription transl: “To the invincible god Sol Mithras, for the salvation of the members of the administrative office (officiales) of [Flavius] Aper, commander of the Macedonian legions V and XIII Gemina Galliens.”
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Between 210 and 240