MITHRAS AND CHRIST
From the second century onwards, Christian writers commented on the resemblance between their own religion and that of Mithras. From their perspective such similarities were due to the subtle wiles of Satan.
Most of these parallels are commonalities uniting all mystery religions and should not be seen as the results of any mutual influence. Such similarities include the importance of water for both religions. Just as Moses produced water out of a rock by striking on it with his staff, Mithras brought forth water by means of an arrow. Mithras was a god born from a rock; in the eastern churches Mary, mother of God, was likened to a rock from which Christ was born. Both Christ and Mithras were for their respective adherents gods of light and of the sun. Just as Mithras for his initiates was the unconquered sun, Christ was the light of the world. Over time, Christians distanced themselves from such shared concepts, and Christ was transformed into Sol lustitiae, the Sun of Justice. Where it seemed impossible to distance oneself from the parallels, they could be appropriated; the celebration of the unconquered Sun on 25 December was taken over and transformed into the celebration of the birth of the Christian deity.The age of Constantine (306-37) was a time of change for the adherents of the cult of Mithras. The agitation of Christian writers against any adoration of the sun became increasingly intense and became so powerful under Constantius II (337-61) that one hyperbolic source reports that people hardly dared to watch the sun rising and setting (Panegyrici Latini [Latin Panegyrics] 11.23). All pre- Christian religions suffered intense and bloody persecution under the emperors who followed, and the cult of Mithras was completely stamped out. Around the year 400 Church Father Jerome wrote a letter to a Christian woman stating (Hieronymus Epistula [Letters] 107.2): “I just want to draw attention to your relative...
Did not he a few years ago destroy, tear apart and burn... the cave of Mithras and all the unnatural images there? After he in this way demonstrated his convictions, has he not yearned for the baptism of Christ?”The effects of such a process can be illustrated with the example of an archaeological finding from Strasbourg-Koenigshoffen (France). Just as at hundreds of other sites, the sanctuary contained an image of the killing of the bull. The excavations brought to light more than 360 fragments of this relief which had measured approximately 180 by 230 centimetres. The number of fragments and their nature clearly revealed that the image had been destroyed on purpose. This was done systematically and thoroughly: first all protruding parts of the relief were chopped off, then the remaining huge slab was smashed to pieces, and finally the intruders dispersed the individual fragments within the sanctuary.
It is often impossible to determine precisely when such destructive acts took place. Eberhard Sauer (2003: 83-8) has shown that the Mithraeum mentioned above was destroyed in two chronologically separate phases. The profile of the passage between the benches is no longer characterized by sharp straight angles but has rather become U-shaped. This is the effect of a lengthy process of erosion of the sides and the deposition of sediments in the passage between the benches during a period when the site had been abandoned and was subject to erosion because it was no longer covered by a roof. Most of the fragments were found in this U-shaped passage, and must thus have arrived there at a time when the site had already been out of use for a long time. The temple had thus been closed at one time and the inventory destroyed on a much later occasion.
The destruction of such sites tells us something about the mentality of broad segments of the Christian population. Popular stories of the early martyrs kept the memory of persecution alive; these stories included the accounts of four stonemasons who were obliged to sacrifice to the great god Sol but chose death instead because for them Christ was the only true light {Passio sanctorum IV coronatorum [Passion of the Four Crowned Martyrs] 7).
The persecution of the cult of Mithras was a way of exacting revenge on the adherents of Sol, and of enforcing adherence to Christianity as the only cult.NOTES
1. The texts are also available via the database “Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby” (www.manfredclauss.de/).
2. For a more recent survey, see Huld-Zetsche (2001).
3. A more recent summary of such concepts can be found in Bivar (1999).
4. Ulansey’s presentation is a classic example of how a chain of hypotheses can lead to conclusions that no longer have any connection to what the sources actually document; see Swerdlow (1991) and Clauss (2001).
SUGGESTED READING
Alvar, J. 2008. Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras. Leiden.
Clauss, Μ. 2000. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries. Edinburgh.
Clauss, Μ. 2012. Mithras. Kult und Mysterium. Darmstadt.
Merkclbach, R. 1984. Mithras. Konigstein.
Vermaseren, Μ. J. 1965. Mithras. Geschichte eines Kultes. Stuttgart.