密特拉教（英语：Mithraism），又译米特拉教，也被称为密特拉密教、密特拉秘仪（英语：Mithraic mysteries），是一支以波斯主神密特拉为信仰中心的希腊罗马密教，大约1世纪至4世纪盛行于罗马帝国境内。[1]这支秘密宗教在罗马军队（英语：Imperial Roman army）中很受到欢迎，[2]并且相当可能仅有男性教徒。
密特拉斯的崇拜者有一套深奥难解的七等级启蒙（英语：initiation）与公共仪式的圣餐制度体系。密特拉教的入教者自称syndexioi（音译：辛德希欧耶），意即“藉著握手而团结（united by the handshake）”。[3]他们的集会在建于地下的神庙进行著，乃名为密特拉寺，也被翻译作“太阳式洞、太阳洞”；与其他希腊罗马神庙有所不同，密特拉寺的建筑刻意仿造密特拉斯宰杀牛的洞穴，[4]今日依然有许多座的密特拉寺被留存著。
有些宗教遗迹则会显示出额外的神话情节。在杜拉·欧罗普斯的密特拉宗教绘画中（《密特拉宗教圣迹碑铭集成（英语：Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae）》〔Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae，缩写为CIMRM〕42号），故事是开始于众神之王朱庇特与巨人之间的战斗。接下来是一尊留著胡须的神祇横卧靠在一颗岩石上的神秘描绘，连同在上方有一棵树的叶子。这尊神祇有时被认为是俄刻阿诺斯。接著就描绘正规的密特拉教神话了。同样的情节也出现在来自于维鲁努姆（英语：Virunum）（Virunum）的CIMRM 1430号中的浮雕里，以及在来自于德国的CIMRM 1359号中的浮雕里做为一个序幕。
在叙利亚境内位于哈瓦蒂（Hawarte, Hawarti or Huarte）密特拉寺内的宗教绘画中，有出现更进一步的神话场景。密特拉斯被描绘为在祂的脚下束缚了一只恶魔；而在另外一个场景之中，密特拉斯则被描绘为正打击著由恶魔所操控的城市。这些场景似乎遵循著正规的神话故事。
现代的历史学者毋论关于这些名号是否指称同一尊神明也有著概念上的分野。约翰·R. 亨尼尔斯（John R. Hinnells）曾写过Mitra／Mithra／Mithras作为在几种不同宗教中崇拜的单一神明。[30]另一方面，大卫·乌兰西（David Ulansey）认为屠牛的密特拉斯是一尊新的神明，祂在西元前一世纪开始被人们给崇拜著，并且向祂引用了一个古老的名号（来尊称祂）。[31]
玛丽·博伊斯（Mary Boyce），为一位古伊朗宗教的研究员，执笔写道尽管罗马帝国的密特拉教仿佛显得比历史学者以前所认为的伊朗（宗教）的内涵更少，不过仍然是“如同密特拉斯这名号独自的彰显著，这个内涵是有些重要的。（as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance.）”。[32]
有些学者将这狮头人身的神像鉴定为艾翁（英语：Aion (deity)）（或译为：埃安）、或者是祖尔宛（英语：Zurvanism）、或者是克洛诺斯、或者是柯罗诺斯，而其他人则声称祂是琐罗亚斯德教之中阿里曼（拉丁文形式的）译名。[60]也有人推测著这尊神像是诺斯替教的造物主（Demiurge），（上帝之狮〔Ariel〕）伊达波思（英语：Yaldabaoth）（Yaldabaoth或者是Ialdabaoth，也译为亚尔达鲍思、伊达鲍斯）。[61]尽管狮头神像的确切身分被学者们所讨论著，在很大程度上认定著神明与时间和季节的变化有关。[62]一个例子是出自于西顿密特拉寺CIMRM 78号到CIMRM 79号。一位神秘主义术，D. J. 库珀（D. J. Cooper），抱持著相反的推测论点认为狮头神像并非神祇，而更准确地说是代表了在密特拉教之中的“精通”层次所达到的精神境界或是心灵状态，即为狮子等级。
[63]
根据马腾·约瑟夫·费尔马歇仁（德语：Maarten Jozef Vermaseren）所述，密特拉密教的新年以及密特拉斯的圣诞是在12月25日。[64][65]然而，罗杰·贝克（Roger Beck）非常地不同意（M. J. 费尔马歇仁的观点）。[66]曼弗雷德·克劳斯（Manfred Clauss）陈述说：“密特拉密教没有祂自己的公众仪式。无敌者生日的节庆，于12月25日举行，乃是一般普遍性的太阳节日，并且决不是特定于密特拉斯的密教（之节日）。”[67]密特拉密教之新的教徒被要求发起一项保守秘密与奉献（dedication）的誓言，[68]并且有些等级仪式是涉及到教义问答书（catechism）的背诵，在其中入教者会被询问到有关于起蒙入会象征意义的一系列问题，并且（入教者）必须回答明确的答案。有一项这样的教义问答书的例证，显然地是关于狮子等级（Leo grade），被发现在一份残缺不全的埃及莎草纸（P.Berolinensis 21196）上，[68][69]并写道：
原文： ... He will say: 'Where ... ?
... he is/(you are?) there (then/thereupon?) at a loss?' Say: ...
Say: 'Night'. He will say: 'Where ... ?' ...
Say: 'All things ...'
(He will say): '... you are called ... ?' Say: 'Because of the summery ...'
... having become ... he/it has the fiery ...
(He will say): '... did you receive/inherit?' Say: 'In a pit'. He will say: 'Where is
your ...?...
(Say): '...(in the...) Leonteion.' He will say: 'Will you gird?' The (heavenly?)
...(Say): '... death'. He will say: 'Why, having girded yourself, ...?'
'... this (has?) four tassels.
Very sharp and ...
'... much'. He will say: ...?
(Say: '... because of/through?) hot and cold'. He will say: ...?
(Say): '... red ... linen'. He will say: 'Why?' Say:
'... red border; the linen, however, ...'
(He will say): '... has been wrapped?' Say: 'The savior's ...'
He will say: 'Who is the father?' Say: 'The one who (begets?) everything ...' (He
will say): '('How ?)...
did you become a Leo?' Say: 'By the ... of the father'. ...
Say: 'Drink and food'. He will say '...?'
每一座密特拉寺在最深处的尽头会有几个祭坛，是位在屠牛像的圣像下方，并且还通常包含相当数量的附属祭坛，两者都在密特拉寺的主室（chamber）以及位于前室（the ante-chamber）或者是前厅（narthex）。[77]这些祭坛，其皆为标准的罗马样式，每个祭坛会带有从特定的入教者中所献纳的题词，特定的入教者向密特拉斯献纳祭坛“履行他的誓言（in fulfillment of his vow）”，乃因获得恩惠而向神明致谢。燃烧过的动物内脏残留物通常被发现在主要的祭坛上表明著祭品的定期使用。然而，密特拉寺通常显示出没有提供关于动物牺牲祭品的屠宰仪式（在罗马宗教中的一项高度专业化功能），[b]并可以依此推测著密特拉寺会为了他们与民间信仰的专业祭品执事（英语：Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victimarius）（victimarius）[78]合作而去提供这项服务地安排。每日对著太阳致以祈祷三次，并且星期日是特别神圣的一天。[79]
现代文献中“Mithraeum（密特拉寺）”是一个现代新造的字汇，用以称呼密特拉信仰的神庙。古代的密特拉教徒将他们的神圣建筑称为“speleum”或者是“antrum”（洞穴）、“crypta”（地下过道或者是走廊〔underground hallway or corridor〕）、“fanum”（神圣或圣地〔sacred or holy place〕），乃至“templum”（神庙或者是神圣场所）。[84]从比较具体的研究资料指出，在义大利境内的碑铭显示出密特拉寺常常被称为“spelaeum”；而在义大利境外则被称之为“templum”。[85]现存的密特拉寺遗迹向我们展现了密特拉信仰的神圣空间的实体建筑结构，通常位在罗马帝国境内；尽管分布上的不均匀，以相当多的数量是发现在罗马、奥斯提亚、努米底亚、达尔马提亚、不列颠尼亚以及沿著莱茵河／多瑙河边界；而在希腊、埃及，以及叙利亚则不太常见。[86]
这最高等级“教父”是很大程度上在献辞和碑铭最常发现的──并且对于密特拉寺而言拥有几个具备这个等级的男子其似乎没有那么的异乎寻常。这pater patrum（英译：father of fathers；汉译：父亲的父亲，引申为教父之父）是经常找到的类型，其似乎表明了“教父”具有主要的地位。有几个人的例子可以说明，通常那些社会地位较高的人，进入密特拉寺（入教）具有“教父”地位──特别是罗马（帝国）在四世纪‘异教复兴’的期间。已经有人提出著（这样的说法是）有些密特拉寺可能会颁发荣誉“教父”地位给予有同情心、和蔼的高贵的人。[101]
被准许接纳而进入教团是连同了与“教父”一起握手（的象征性仪式），就像密特拉斯和索尔握手一样。这入教者乃因而被称之为辛德希欧耶（syndexioi，那些由握手团结的人）。该宗教术语被用于普洛菲璨西乌斯（Proficentius）的碑铭[3]以及被费尔米库斯·马特尔努斯在他所撰写的《错误的世俗宗教》（ De errore profanarum religionum）一书中受到嘲讽，[103]那是一部西元四世纪基督教责难异教的著作。[104][e]在古代伊朗，握著右手是缔结条约的传统方式或者表示著双方之间的一些庄严谅解。[105]
在古代，书面记录提到了“the mysteries of Mithras（密特拉斯的秘密宗教）”，以及对于这支宗教的信徒，是作为“the mysteries of the Persians（波斯人的秘密宗教）”。[124]但是与波斯是否真的有任何连结的关系学术界则是有很大的争议了，还有关于这宗教的起源是相当朦胧不明的。[125]直到西元一世纪之前密特拉斯的秘密宗教是尚未盛行传布的。[126]独特的地下神庙或密特拉寺在西元一世纪的最后一刻却突然出现在考古学当中。[127]
在西元二世纪与西元三世纪期间，考古学上包括了许多大型的密特拉寺，其中有些在此期间有进行重建和扩大。当密特拉斯的信仰告终时，对这支秘密宗教很难再追溯到他们的足迹了。贝克陈述著“在这〔四〕世纪较早时期这支宗教如同（罗马）帝国自始至终一样的消亡了。（Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire.）”。[128]所以出自于西元四世纪关于密特拉教的碑铭就相当的稀少了。克劳斯则说明碑铭显示出由异教元老们列在碑铭上将密特拉斯（的秘密宗教）列为在罗马的信仰之一作为在上层集团掌权人物之中“异教复兴”的一部分。[129]在西元五世纪时已经没有可以显示这支信仰仍然存在的证据了。[130]
其他早期的考古学（史料）还包括了出自于西元100年～西元150年之间从维诺西亚（Venosia）而来由名为萨格里斯（Sagaris）的倡导者（actor）所刻写的希腊文碑铭；在西顿境内艾克门（Echmoun）的神庙之中发现了一座纪念石碑（cippus，古希腊罗马之纪念碑石）并且由M. 杜南德（M. Dunand）所公布出来。石碑刻有一段希腊文碑文，上面说这石碑是“由狄奥多图斯（Theodotus）献给了圣神阿斯克勒庇俄斯（Asclepios or Asclepius），密特拉斯在251年的ἱερεύς（英译：priest；汉译：祭司）”。石碑上刻写的时间251年乃是使用著西顿当地的时代纪年，相当于西元140年～西元141年。[144]也有列在《希腊铭文补编》（Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum）之中；[145]还有最早的军方碑铭，是由C. 萨奇狄乌斯·巴巴鲁斯（C. Sacidius Barbarus）所刻写的，乃为第十五阿波里纳利斯军团的百夫长，（该碑铭是）出自于多瑙河畔的卡农顿（英语：Carnuntum）（Carnuntum），年代大概在西元114年之前。[146]
根据C. M. 丹尼尔斯（C.M.Daniels）所述，出自于多瑙河地区卡农顿碑铭是最早的密特拉密教题献，该处是同义大利一起成为密特拉教最早扎下（传教）根基的两个地区之一。[147]在罗马以外最早能确定年代的密特拉寺可追溯到西元148年。[148]位在凯撒利亚·马力提马的密特拉寺是在巴勒斯坦境内唯一可以被推断年代的一座（密特拉寺）。[149]
希腊传记作家普鲁塔克（西元46年～西元127年）述说著“秘密宗教仪式…密特拉斯的（secret mysteries ... of Mithras）”被奇里乞亚的海盗所执行著，这（奇里乞亚）是位于安纳托利亚的东南沿海的罗马行省，他们是活跃于西元前一世纪，这是他当天在罗马执行的密特拉密教仪式的起源，其表述的全文如下：“他们还有提供奇特的祭品；我的意思是那些是奥林帕斯的；并且他们主持庆祝一些秘密宗教仪式，
在这之中密特拉斯的那些持续到这一日，最初是由他们所创制的。”[160]他提到了海盗是在米特拉达梯战争（罗马共和国和本都国王米特拉达梯六世之间的战争）的期间特别地活跃在这之中他们是支持著米特拉达梯六世国王的。[160]米特拉达梯和海盗之间的联盟也由古代历史学家阿庇安所提到过。[161]在维吉尔作于西元四世纪且由塞尔维乌斯所注释的评论上述说著庞培在南义大利境内的卡拉布里亚安顿了一些海盗。[162][163]不过这一点是否与这支秘密宗教的起源有关就不清楚了。[164]
卡西乌斯
历史学家狄奥·卡西乌斯（西元二至三世纪）讲述了亚美尼亚国王梯利达特斯一世（英语：Tiridates I of Armenia）向罗马所进行的国事访问期间对于密特拉斯的名号是怎样被称诵的，这是在尼禄皇帝在位的时期的历史事件。（梯利达特斯为帕提亚国王沃诺奈斯二世之子，并且他的加冕礼是由尼禄在西元66年所执行的，同时确认了帕提亚和罗马之间战争的结束。）狄奥·卡西乌斯对于梯利达特斯是这么写道的，因为他即将获得了他的冠冕，告诉著罗马皇帝他（尼禄）要尊敬他（梯利达特斯）“如同密特拉斯”。[165]罗杰·贝克认为这件插曲很可能是有助于密特拉教在罗马境内的出现而成为一个受欢迎的宗教。[166]
波菲利
镶嵌图案（西元一世纪）描绘了密特拉斯从他的洞穴中走出来以及两侧由考泰斯与考托佩斯护卫著，现今珍藏于沃尔特斯艺术博物馆（英语：Walters Art Museum）（Walters Art Museum）。
哲学家波菲利（西元三世纪～西元四世纪）在他的作品De antro nympharum（英译：The Cave of the Nymphs、On the Cave of the Nymphs；汉译：《宁芙的洞穴》、《在宁芙的洞穴》）提供了（关于）这支秘密宗教起源的描述。[167]援引引用欧布洛斯（的史册）作为他的资料来源，波菲利写道密特拉斯的原始神庙是一个天然的洞穴，其处拥有喷泉，这洞穴是琐罗亚斯德在波斯山脉中发现的。对于琐罗亚斯德来说，这个洞穴是整个世界的形象，所以他奉献这洞穴给了密特拉斯，世界的创造者。因此密特拉斯的神话说道他们的信仰是由琐罗亚斯德创立的。[168]之后在同样的作品之中，波菲利将密特拉斯和公牛与与行星和星座（star-signs）联系了起来：密特拉斯祂自己是与黄道十二星座中的牡羊座以及行星中的火星联系在一起，而公牛则是与金星联系在一起的。[169]
在古代晚期，密特拉斯（Μίθρας）的希腊名号被发现在称为“密特拉斯圣仪（英语：Mithras Liturgy）”的文本中，属于《巴黎伟大巫术纸草文稿》（ Paris Great Magical Papyrus；Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Suppl. gr. 574）的一部分；在这份文稿之中密特拉斯被赋予了“伟大神明（the great god）”的称号，并且被视为与太阳神赫利俄斯是等同的。[175][176]学者们之间有著不同的观点就是关于这份文本是否即为密特拉教这样的一个（宗教）表现方式。弗朗茨·库蒙（英语：Franz Cumont）则表明说这（文本）不是；[177]马文·迈耶（英语：Marvin Meyer）（Marvin Meyer）却认为这（文本）是；[178]而汉斯·迪特尔·贝茨则将其视为希腊、埃及，以及密特拉密教传统的综合。[179][180]
有关于密特拉斯的学术研究是从弗朗茨·库蒙（英语：Franz Cumont）这位学者开始的，他在1894年～1900年间以法语出版了两卷原始资料文本和宗教遗迹图像的汇编文集，法文原书名称为：Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra（英译书名为：Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra；汉译书名：《与密特拉的秘密宗教有关的文本和宗教遗迹插图》）。[181]这部作品的部分英文翻译于1903年的时候出版，其书名题为：The Mysteries of Mithra；汉译为：《密特拉的秘密宗教》。[182]库蒙的假设，正如作者在他的专书前32页中总结的那样，那是一支罗马宗教乃为“拜火教的罗马形式”，[183]是属于波斯的国教，传播路径是从东方到西方的。他确认了古代雅利安的的神灵而祂这尊出现在波斯文献中与（出现在）吠陀赞美诗中的印度神明密多罗即是密特拉斯。[184]根据库蒙所述，密特拉（英语：Mithra）神明来到了罗马“伴随著拜火教万神殿的大量继承。”。[185]库蒙认为著虽然传统“在西方经历了一些修改…其所遭受的改变在很大程度上是表面的”。[186]
译文：“…一项波斯人在秘密宗教中不可磨灭事物的残留以及更好地理解什么是构成实际的拜火教拥有允许现代学者们去假设关于罗马的密特拉教乃延续著伊朗的神学。这个的确是密特拉密教学术研究的主线。库蒙式模型其乃为随后的学者接受、修改，或者是驳斥。为了将伊朗的教义从东向西传播出去，库蒙假设了一个似是而非的，若是假设的，其中间的媒介为：在安纳托利亚境内散居的伊朗（波斯）法师。更有问题的是──及其从来没有被库蒙或他的继承者妥善地解决──真实生活中的罗马密特拉教徒是如何在西洋外观背后接著主张著一个相当复杂和精致的伊朗神学。除了两个位在杜拉的‘祆教法师’圣像连同一起的卷轴之外，这些教义的载体没有直接和明确的证据。…在一定程度上，库蒙的伊朗范式，尤其是在图尔坎的修改形式中，当然是貌似有理的。”[196][197][198]原文："... an indubitable residuum of things Persian in the Mysteries and a better knowledge of what constituted actual Mazdaism have allowed modern scholars to postulate for Roman Mithraism a continuing Iranian theology. This indeed is the main line of Mithraic scholarship, the Cumontian model which subsequent scholars accept, modify, or reject. For the transmission of Iranian doctrine from East to West, Cumont postulated a plausible, if hypothetical, intermediary: the Magusaeans of the Iranian diaspora in Anatolia. More problematic – and never properly addressed by Cumont or his successors – is how real-life Roman Mithraists subsequently maintained a quite complex and sophisticated Iranian theology behind an occidental facade. Other than the images at Dura of the two ‘magi’ with scrolls, there is no direct and explicit evidence for the carriers of such doctrines. ... Up to a point, Cumont’s Iranian paradigm, especially in Turcan’s modified form, is certainly plausible."
然而，阿德里安·大卫·休·比瓦尔或简称A. D. H. 比瓦尔（Adrian David Hugh Bivar or A. D. H. Bivar）、L. A. 坎贝尔（L. A. Campbell）以及G. 维登格伦（G. Widengren）则不同地认为著罗马密特拉教意味了某种形式的伊朗密特拉崇拜之延续。[206]
密特拉教在西元二世纪与西元三世纪的期间达到了其受欢迎程度的最高点，当索尔·无敌者的崇拜被纳入了国家－发起的信仰之同一个时期中该教派即以“惊人”的速度在传播著。[210]在这个期间肯定的是帕拉斯有专门为密特拉斯写了一本专著，而稍后的欧布洛斯便写了一部《密特拉斯的历史》（History of Mithras），虽然这两件作品现在都佚失了。[211]根据四世纪的《罗马帝王纪》所载，（罗马）皇帝康茂德加入了祂（密特拉斯）的秘密宗教[212]但这支教派从未成为国家信仰之一。[213]
译文：密特拉斯是灵魂的引导乃因他从俗世的生命之中深入引导著那一个他们对于光明已经堕落倒退（的灵魂）那光明正是从他们所散发出来的…其不仅仅是来自于东方和埃及人的宗教以及智慧，更不用说是基督教的，在尘世上的生命只是要过渡到更高生命的概念是由罗马人所导源的。他们自己的痛苦和衰老的意识使得其足以明白的那是尘世上所有的生存是艰苦和痛苦的。密特拉斯－崇拜成为了一个，而且也许是最重大意义的，有关在衰落的异教之中的救赎宗教。[214]原文：Mithras is the guide of souls which he leads from the earthly life into which they had fallen back up to the light from which they issued ... It was not only from the religions and the wisdom of Orientals and Egyptians, even less from Christianity, that the notion that life on earth was merely a transition to a higher life was derived by the Romans. Their own anguish and the awareness of senescence made it plain enough that earthly existence was all hardship and bitterness. Mithras-worship became one, and perhaps the most significant, of the religions of redemption in declining paganism.
译文：因此在这密特拉斯的秘密宗教里面模仿中的邪恶之魔鬼也已经流传了应该执行的同样事情。对于那些面包和一只水杯于这些秘密宗教中陈设在这入教者连同著一定的演说你可以知道或者可以学习之前。[268]原文：Wherefore also the evil demons in mimicry have handed down that the same thing should be done in the Mysteries of Mithras. For that bread and a cup of water are in these mysteries set before the initiate with certain speeches you either know or can learn.
根据玛丽·博伊斯所述，对于位在西方的基督教而言密特拉教是个强而有力的敌人，虽说她对在东方持有怀疑态度。[275][276][277]菲利波·夸雷利（Filippo Coarelli，在1979年的时候）已把四十个实际或可能的列成表并估计著罗马将有“不少于680～690座（not less than 680–690）”的密特拉寺。[7]刘易斯·M. 霍普费声明著多于400处的密特拉密教遗址已被发现。这些遗址遍布了整个罗马帝国地点从远在位于东边的杜拉·欧罗普斯，以及直到西边的英格兰都有。他，连带的，那么说了密特拉教可能是基督教的对手。[10]大卫·乌兰西认为勒南的言论“有些夸张”，[278]除了将密特拉教视为“罗马帝国境内基督教的主要竞争对手之一”之外。[278]乌兰西注意到了对于理解“基督教信仰到诞生其文化的基体（the cultural matrix out of which the Christian religion came to birth）”密特拉教的研究同样是非常重要的。[278]
但后来的克劳斯表示：“密特拉密教没有自己的公开仪式。natalis Invicti〔无敌的（太阳）诞生〕的节日，12月25日举行，是普遍性的太阳节日，并且绝非是特定于密特拉斯的秘密宗教。（the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of natalis Invicti [Birth of the Unconquerable (Sun)], held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras.）”。[286]
于罗马境内在圣塔普利斯卡密特拉寺墙上一段严重损坏的描绘文字（CIMRM 485号，约西元200年）[288]可能包含以下言辞：et nos servasti (?) . . . sanguine fuso（英译为：and you have saved us ... in the shed blood；汉译为：而且你救了我们…在流淌著血之中）。这个意思是不清楚的，虽然大概是提及密特拉斯屠杀了公牛，因为没有其他来源言及到是密特拉密教救赎。servasti（救赎）已被视为确定的；但实际上只是一个推测，并且潘切里（Pancieri），乃是考察这个项目最近来的考古学家，他陈述道这应该是错的。[289]根据罗伯特·图尔坎所述，[290]密特拉密教救赎与个人灵魂的另一个世俗命运几乎没有（产生）关系，而是在人类参与了宇宙中善良创造反对邪恶力量著的斗争之琐罗亚斯德教模式。[291]
Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158. p. 156: "Beyond these three Mithraea [in Syria and Palestine], there are only a handful of objects from Syria that may be identified with Mithraism. Archaeological evidence of Mithraism in Syria is therefore in marked contrast to the abundance of Mithraea and materials that have been located in the rest of the Roman Empire. Both the frequency and the quality of Mithraic materials is greater in the rest of the empire. Even on the western frontier in Great Britain, archaeology has produced rich Mithraic materials, such as those found at Walbrook. If one accepts Cumont’s theory that Mithraism began in Iran, moved west through Babylon to Asia Minor, and then to Rome, one would expect that the cult left its traces in those locations. Instead, archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome. Wherever its ultimate place of origin may have been, the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants. None of the Mithraic materials or temples in Roman Syria except the Commagene sculpture bears any date earlier than the late first or early second century. [footnote in cited text: 30. Mithras, identified with a Phrygian cap and the nimbus about his head, is depicted in colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I of Commagene, 69–34 BCE. (see Vermaseren, CIMRM 1.53–56). However, there are no other literary or archaeological evidences to indicate that the religion of Mithras as it was known among the Romans in the second to fourth centuries AD was practiced in Commagene]. While little can be proved from silence, it seems that the relative lack of archaeological evidence from Roman Syria would argue against the traditional theories for the origins of Mithraism."
Geden, A. S. (15 October 2004). Select Passages Illustrating Mithraism 1925[永久失效链接]. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-1-4179-8229-5. Retrieved 28 March 2011. "Porphyry moreover seems to be the only writer who makes reference to women initiates into the service and rites of Mithra, and his allusion is perhaps due to a misunderstanding.... The participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, but the predominant military influence in Mithraism seems to render it unlikely in this instance."
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.42: "Because Mithras killed the bull in a cave, his followers likewise performed the ritual reproduction of this saving act in a cave, or rather in a shrine which reproduced that cave, in a spelaeum ('cave')."
Beck, Roger (17 February 2011). "The Pagan Shadow of Christ?" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. BBC-History. Retrieved 4 June 2011. "We know a good deal about them because archaeology has disinterred many meeting places together with numerous artifacts and representations of the cult myth, mostly in the form of relief sculpture."
Coarelli; Beck, Roger; Haase, Wolfgang (1984). Aufstieg und niedergang der römischen welt (The Rise and Decline of the Roman World) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 2026–. ISBN978-3-11-010213-0 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 20 March 2011. "A useful topographic survey, with map, by F. Coarelli (1979) lists 40 actual or possible mithraea (the latter inferred from find-spots, with the sensible proviso that a mithraeum will not necessarily correspond to every find). Principally from comparisons of size and population with Ostia, Coarelli calculates that there will have been in Rome "not less than 680–690" mithraea in all ... ."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 3. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. "However, in the absence of any ancient explanations of its meaning, Mithraic iconography has proven to be exceptionally difficult to decipher."
Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 2011-03-14. The term "Mithraism" is of course a modern coinage. In antiquity the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras"; alternatively, as "the mysteries of the Persians." ... The Mithraists, who were manifestly not Persians in any ethnic sense, thought of themselves as cultic "Persians." ... the ancient Roman Mithraists themselves were convinced that their cult was founded by none other than Zoroaster, who "dedicated to Mithras, the creator and father of all, a cave in the mountains bordering Persia," an idyllic setting "abounding in flowers and springs of water" (Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs 6)."
Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Retrieved 19 March 2011. "Today more than four hundred locations of Mithraic worship have been identified in every area of the Roman Empire. Mithraea have been found as far west as Britain and as far east as Dura Europas. Between the second and fourth centuries C.E. Mithraism may have vied with Christianity for domination of the Roman world."
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. xxi: "we possess virtually no theological statements either by Mithraists themselves or by other writers."
Richard L. Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. p. 160: "The usual western nominative form of Mithras' name in the mysteries ended in -s, as we can see from the one authentic dedication in the nominative, recut over a dedication to Sarapis (463, Terme de Caracalla), and from occasional grammatical errors such as deo inviato Metras (1443). But it is probable that Euboulus and Pallas at least used the name Mithra as an indeclinable (ap. Porphyry, De abstinentia II.56 and IV.16)."
Origen, Contra Celsus, Book 6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, Chapter 22. "After this, Celsus, desiring to exhibit his learning in his treatise against us, quotes also certain Persian mysteries, where he says: ‘These things are obscurely hinted at in the accounts of the Persians, and especially in the mysteries of Mithras, which are celebrated among them ...’ "
Chapter 24 "After the instance borrowed from the Mithraic mysteries, Celsus declares that he who would investigate the Christian mysteries, along with the aforesaid Persian, will, on comparing the two together, and on unveiling the rites of the Christians, see in this way the difference between them."
"Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies. Retrieved 2011-03-28. "The Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies (EJMS) is a revival of the Journal of Mithraic Studies edited by Dr. Richard Gordon. It is a place where researchers on Roman Mithraism can publish the product of their research and make it freely available for other interested people."
Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition,. Retrieved 2011-03-28. "For most of the twentieth century the major problem addressed by scholarship on both Roman Mithraism and the Iranian god Mithra was the question of continuity."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 90. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. "It is therefore highly likely that it was in the context of Mithridates’ alliance with the Cilician pirates that there arose the synchretistic link between Perseus and Mithra which led to the name Mithras (a Greek form of the name Mithra) being given to the god of the new cult."
Britannica, Encyclopedia of World Religions. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2006. p. 509. ISBN 978-1-59339-491-2. "... Mithra is the next most important deity and may even have occupied a position of near equality with Ahura Mazde. He was associated with the Sun, and in time the name Mithra became a common word for "Sun". Mithra functioned preeminently in the ethical sphere; he was the god of the covenant, who oversaw all solemn agreements that people made among themselves ... In later times Mithra gave his name to Mithraism, a mystery religion."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 8. ISBN0-19-506788-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "Cumont’s ... argument was straightforward and may be summarized succinctly: the name of the god of the cult, Mithras, is the Latin (and Greek) form of the name of an ancient Iran god, Mithra; in addition, the Romans believed that their cult was connected with Persia (as the Romans called Iran); therefore we may assume that Roman Mithraism is nothing other than the Iranian cult of Mithra transplanted into the Roman Empire."
Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. p. 160: "The usual western nominative form of Mithras’ name in the mysteries ended in -s, as we can see from the one authentic dedication in the nominative, recut over a dedication to Sarapis (463, Terme de Caracalla), and from occasional grammatical errors such as deo inviato Metras (1443). But it is probable that Euboulus and Pallas at least used the name ‘Mithra’ as an indeclinable [foreign word] (ap. Porphyry, De abstinentia II.56 and IV.16)."
Michael Speidel (1980). Mithras-Orion: Greek hero and Roman army god （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. pp. 1–. ISBN978-90-04-06055-5 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "India's sacred literature refers to him since the hymns of the Rig Veda. But it was in Iran where Mithras rose to the greatest prominence: rebounding after the reforms of Zarathustra, Mithras became one of the great gods of the Achaemenian emperors and to this very day he is worshipped in India and Iran by Parsees and Zarathustrians."
Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Eisenbrauns. pp. 150–. ISBN978-0-931464-73-7 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 19 March 2011. "All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra / Mitra figure of ancient Aryan religion."
Turcan, Robert (1996). The cults of the Roman Empire. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 196–. ISBN978-0-631-20047-5 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 19 March 2011. "The name Mithras comes from a root mei- (which implies the idea of exchange), accompanied by an instrumental suffix. It was therefore a means of exchange, the ‘contract’ which rules human relations and is the basis of social life. In Sanskrit, mitra means 'friend' or ‘friendship’, like mihr in Persian. In Zend, mithra means precisely the ‘contract’, which eventually became deified, following the same procedure as Venus, the ‘charm’ for the Romans. We find him invoked with Varuna in an agreement concluded c. 1380 BCE between the king of the Hittites, Subbiluliuma, and the king of Mitanni, Mativaza. ... It is the earliest evidence of Mithras in Asia Minor."
Schmidt, Hans-Peter (2006), "Mithra i: Mithra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian", Encyclopaedia Iranica （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, New York: iranica.com (accessed April 2011)
Hinnells, John R. (1990), "Introduction: the questions asked and to be asked", in Hinnells, John R., Studies in Mithraism, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, p. 11, "The god is unique in being worshipped in four distinct religions: Hinduism (as Mitra), in Iranian Zoroastrianism and Manicheism (as Mithra), and in the Roman Empire (as Mithras)."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 94. ISBN0-19-506788-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "the intimate alliance between the pirates and Mithridates Eupator, named after Mithra and mythically descended from Perseus, led to the pirates adopting the name Mithras for the new god."
Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1975). Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule, Part 1 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. pp. 468, 469. ISBN90-04-09271-4 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 2011-03-16. "The theory that the complex iconography of the characteristic monuments (of which the oldest belong to the second century A.C.) could be interpreted by direct reference to Iranian religion is now widely rejected; and recent studies have tended greatly to reduce what appears to be the actual Iranian content of this "self consciously ‘Persian’ religion", at least in the form which it attained under the Roman empire. Nevertheless, as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance; and the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary reference to them."
Clauss, M. The Roman cult of Mithras, p. xxi: "... we possess virtually no theological statements either by Mithraists themselves or by other writers."
David Ulansey, The origins of the Mithraic mysteries, p. 6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "Although the iconography of the cult varied a great deal from temple to temple, there is one element of the cult’s iconography which was present in essentially the same form in every mithraeum and which, moreover, was clearly of the utmost importance to the cult’s ideology; namely the so-called tauroctony, or bull-slaying scene, in which the god Mithras, accompanied by a series of other figures, is depicted in the act of killing the bull."
Mazur, Zeke. "Harmonious Opposition (PART I): Pythagorean Themes of Cosmogonic Mediation in the Roman Mysteries of Mithras" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） (PDF). Retrieved 2011-06-14. "The god's right leg, appearing on the left as one faces the tauroctony, is nearly always straight as it pins the bull's hoof to the ground, while his left leg, which is usually resting on the back or flank of the bull, is bent at the knee with his foot often partially obscured beneath the folds of his tunic. Anyone familiar with the cult's iconography will immediately recognize this awkward and possibly unnatural posture as a typical or even essential aspect of the tauroctony. The remarkable consistency of this particular feature is underscored by comparison with the subtle variability of others..."
Näsström, Britt-Marie. "The sacrifi ces of Mithras" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） (PDF). Retrieved 2011-04-04. "He is wearing a Phrygian cap and a wind-filled cloak, and, most remarkable of all, his head is turned in the other direction as if he would not look at his own deed. Still, this sacrifice is a guarantee of salvation for the participants."
J. R. Hinnells, "The Iconography of Cautes and Cautopates: the Data", Journal of Mithraic Studies 1, 1976, pp. 36–67. See also William W. Malandra, Cautes and Cautopates[永久失效链接] Encyclopedia Iranica article.
Bjørnebye, Jonas (2007). "The Mithraic icon in fourth century Rome:The composition of the Mithraic cult icon". Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome,Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD). "The figure of Mithras himself is usually attired in an oriental costume of Phrygian cap, tunica manicata (a long-sleeved tunic), anaxyrides (eastern style trousers), and a cape, though in some cases, he is depicted heroically nude or even, in a unique example from Ostia, in what seems to be a Greek chiton. Like the general trend in Graeco-Roman art, most if not all tauroctony scenes, regardless of the medium they were executed in, were painted, and the different items of Mithras' clothing was usually colored in either blue or red, often, as in the painting at Marino, with most of the costume in red with only the inside of the cape being blue and star-speckled. The bull was often white, sometimes wearing the dorsuale, the Roman sacrificial band in reds or browns, while the torchbearers could be depicted in a variety of colors with reds and greens being the most common."
Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras cult in the Roman empire. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. p. 21. "Often, the mithraeum was embellished elsewhere with secondary exemplars of the tauroctony, and there also seem to have been small portable versions, perhaps for private devotion."
M.J. Vermaseren, Mithraica I: The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere (Brill, 1971), p. 14: "And so Oceanus could be connected with both Cautes (Capua) and Cautopates (Heddernheim): Cautopates was moreover related to Terra and Cautes to Caelus."; Jaime Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras, translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), p. 86: "On an important monument from mithraeum III at Heddernheim/Frankfurt, Cautes is further associated with Caelus, Heaven, and Cautopates with Oceanus.(195)" "195. V. 1127 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） = Schwertheim 1974, 81 no. 61c. This may however simply be because they are two sets of brothers."
R. Beck in response to I.P. Culianu, "L'«Ascension de l'Âme» dans les mystères et hors des mystères," in La Soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' impero romano (Brill, 1982), p. 302 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "My other point is just to bring in a Mithraic monument, which has not so far figured in our conversations, but which I believe is of great importance, and that is the monument of Ottaviano Zeno, recently edited by Professor Vermaseren (Mithriaca IV, Leiden 1978). Its upper register contains a row of seven altars, with two Aion-typc figures, both entwined with serpents; one is winged, the other not. These two figures and their positions, the one at the extreme left of the row order, the other in the center, allows one to speculate on the planetary order underlying these otherwise anonymous altars. Professor Vermaseren produces, to my mind, a very plausible set of identifications, seeing the Aion on the left as Saturn, and the Aion in the center as a type of Jupiter, or rather a Caelus aeternus in the position of Jupiter (pp. 52-53). The question then arises, what order of the planets is implied for the seven altars? These are in fact more than one possible sequence, and others, of course, if one identifies the Aions differently." No reference is given for the claim.
Levi, "Aion," p. 302: "Thus Ahura-Mazda is invoked in Latin as Caelus aeternus Iupiter; and other allegorical representations of the Mithriac Caelus occur in the form of an eagle leaning over the heavenly sphere, adorned with the signs of the planets or with the zodiacal ring." but no reference is given for the claim. Salomon Reinach ,Orpheus: A General History of Religions, translated by Florence Simmonds (London: Heinemann, 1909), p. 68, also claims that Ahura-Mazda was referred to as Caelus by the Romans; again without reference.
Beck, Roger (2007). The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-921613-4 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）., p. 27-28.
Vermaseren, M. J. "The miraculous Birth of Mithras". In László Gerevich. Studia Archaeologica （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. pp. 93–109. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
Commodian, Instructiones 1.13: "The unconquered one was born from a rock, if he is regarded as a god." See also the image of "Mithras petra genetrix Terme", inset above.
H. von Gall, "The Lion-headed and the Human-headed God in the Mithraic Mysteries," in Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin ed. Études mithriaques, 1978, p. 511 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "Very characteristic of Roman Mithraic art is the type of a naked lion-headed youth. He is entwined by a snake, and the snake's head usually rests on the lion's head. The lion's mouth of this demon is usually open giving a grim and infernal impression. He is mostly represented with four wings, and further attributes are two keys (or one key) and a scepter in each hand: sometimes he is standing on a globe (fig. 1). It must be stressed that this mythological type is entirely restricted to Mithraic art. Exact parallels are missing in contemporary Egypt and from the composite beings on Gnostic gems, though in both of these cases animal-headed creatures are numerous. There is a variant of the lion-headed Mithraic demon with an entirely human body, which also has a human head. This latter type is more scarcely represented though it must be supposed that some headless statues with a small neck and acccntuated shoulders may have belonged to the human-headed type (pl. XXX)."
Howard M. Jackson, "The Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism" in Numen, Vol. 32, Fasc. 1 (Jul., 1985), pp. 17-45. Online here. P.18: "On the provisos, however, that the statue represents a leontocephaline (it does have the usual wings and keys), that the crucial word is correctly restored, and that the word identifies the statue itself, the being's name was Arimanius, nominally the equivalent of Ahriman, the great Evil One of the Zoroastrian pantheon. In support of this admittedly shaky identification of the leontocephaline there are the facts that Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have figured as a deus in the Mithraic cult (CIMRM #369 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, an altar from Rome; #1773 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） with fig 461 and #1775 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, both from Pannonia) and to have been depicted by some kind of plastic image (signum Arimanium: CIMRM #222 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, from Ostia)."
R D Barnett (1975). John R Hinnells, ed. Mithraic studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic studies, Vol II. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 467–. "According to some, the lion man is Aion (Zurvan, or Kronos); according to others, Ahriman."
Roger Beck, A reprinted article on the Ponza zodiac in: Beck on Mithraism, Ashgate (2004), p. 194 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） (original article page no. 110): "The other monuments in which a snake is associated with a zodiac are, significantly, all Mithraic, and for the most part they are monuments of the lion-headed god. There is no need for us to enter into the vexed question of who exactly this deity is. It is sufficient for our purposes 'that, from the iconography, the god was concerned with time, seasonal change and cosmic power' (Gordon, 1975: 222), a position that, I believe, few scholars would be inclined to deny. Nor shall I be attempting to prove that proposition, since my argument would then be circular. The association of the lion-headed god with time is established largely through the iconography of snake and zodiac. One cannot therefore argue that the snake and zodiac, as found at Ponza, are symbols of time because they are associated elsewhere with the lion-headed god. Rather, I wish only to demonstrate that, accepting as a premise that the snake with the zodiac is a symbol of time, and in particular of time as defined by the sun's annual journey."
D. Jason Cooper (1996). Mithras: mysteries and initiation rediscovered. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc. pp. 48–49. "The statue is a representation of the Leo degree, internalized."
Vermaseren, M. J. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa in Rome （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. pp. 238–. Retrieved 3 April 2011. "One should bear in mind that the Mithraic New Year began on Natalis Invicti, the birthday of their invincible god, i.e., December 25th, when the new light ...... appears from the vault of heaven."
"Roman Religion" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 4 July 2011. "For a time, coins and other monuments continued to link Christian doctrines with the worship of the Sun, to which Constantine had been addicted previously. But even when this phase came to an end, Roman paganism continued to exert other, permanent influences, great and small....The ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivals—notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 105. ISBN0-19-506788-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "The original editor of the text, Albrecht Dieterich, claimed that it recorded an authentic Mithraic ritual, but this claim was rejected by Cumont, who felt that the references to Mithras in the text were merely the result of an extravagant syncretism evident in magical traditions. Until recently, most scholars followed Cumont in refusing to see any authentic Mithraic doctrine in the Mithras Liturgy."
Francis, E.D. (1971). Hinnells, John R., ed. "Mithraic graffiti from Dura-Europos", in Mithraic Studies, vol. 2. Manchester University Press. pp. 424–445.
Bjørnebye, Jonas (2007). Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome,Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD). pp. 12, 36. "The discovery of a large quantity of tableware as well as animal remains in a pit outside the newly excavated mithraeum at Tienen, Belgium, has also attracted new attention to the topic of Mithraic processions and large-scale feasts, begging a re-examination of the secrecy of the cult and its visibility in local society...provides evidence for large-scale, semi-public feasts outside of the mithraeum itself, suggesting that each mithraeum might have had a far larger following than its relative size would imply."
Beck, Roger (2007). The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-921613-4 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "Nevertheless, the fact that Porphyry and/or his sources would have had no scruples about adapting or even inventing Mithraic data to suit their arguments does not necessarily mean that they actually did so. It is far more likely that Mithraic doctrine (in the weak sense of the term!) really was what the philosophers said it was... there are no insuperable discrepancies between Mithraic practice and theory as attested in Porphyry and Mithraic practice and theory as archaeology has allowed us to recover them. Even if there were major discrepancies, they would matter only in the context of the old model of an internally consistent and monolithic Mithraic doctrine.", p.87.
Bjørnebye, Jonas (2007). "The mithraea as buildings". Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus: The cult of Mithras in fourth century Rome,Dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD). "The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. While the Mithraists themselves never used the word mithraeum as far as we know, but preferred words like speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space), the word mithraeum is the common appellation in Mithraic scholarship and is used throughout this study"
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.22: "The cult spread from Italy, then. In view of the sheer amount of evidence found there, we can probably point specifically to the area of Rome and Ostia. The cult in Rome retained some peculiarities well after the first century AD, though we have no firmly datable monuments from the early period. Among these idiosyncrasies we can list the term spelaeum, ritual cave, for the mithraeum, which was not replaced by the word templum as quickly as in the provinces..."
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.43: "The architecture of mithraea is quite special, and its characteristic configuration makes it easy to identify such temples in excavations."
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.46: "The cult-room itself (crypta) was constructed according to a traditional scheme, whose design remained virtually constant from Britain to the Black Sea. Its characteristic feature was a central aisle (fig. 7: D) flanked on each side by raised podia (E) for the initiates."
Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.73: "...the importance of water for all manner of ritual purposes is revealed by the water-basins and cisterns, by the representations of Oceanus, and also by the evident desire to locate temples in the vicinity of a river or a spring. Water-basins were clearly part of the basic equipment of all mithraea."
M. Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 105: "the followers of Mithras were the ‘initiates of the theft of the bull, united by the handshake of the illustrious father’." (Err. prof. relig. 5.2)
Beck, Roger (2000). "Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel". The Journal of Roman Studies.90 (90): 145–180. JSTOR300205 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. doi:10.2307/300205 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
Martin, Luther H. (2004). Ritual Competence and Mithraic Ritual. in Wilson, Brian C. (2004). Religion as a human capacity: a festschrift in honor of E. Thomas Lawson. BRILL., p. 257
R.L. Gordon, "Who worshipped Mithras?", Journal of Roman Archaeology 7, 1994, p.461: "Cumont's story relied on the existence of a coherent priesthood of magi, who were supposed to have transmitted authentic Iranian teaching to the west in late 1st c."
A.D. Nock, "The Genius of Mithraism", Journal of Roman Studies 27.1, 1937, pp.109-110; M.Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, 2000, p.139: "There are no priests in the west who called themselves magi."; R.L. Gordon, "Who worshipped Mithras?", Journal of Roman Archaeology 7, 1994, p.461. cf. Beck, "Mithraism since Franz Cumont", ANRW II.17.4, 1984, p.2018-2019
Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithras. p. 173. Retrieved 6 July 2011. "Whilst the majority of the Oriental cults accorded to women a considerable role in their churches, and sometimes even a preponderating one, finding in them ardent supporters of the faith, Mithra forbade their participation in his Mysteries and so deprived himself of the incalculable assistance of these propagandists. The rude discipline of the order did not permit them to take the degrees in the sacred cohorts, and, as among the Mazdeans of the Orient, they occupied only a secondary place in the society of the faithful. Among the hundreds of inscriptions that have come down to us, not one mentions either a priestess, a woman initiate, or even a donatress."
Richard Gordon (2005). "Mithraism". In Lindsay Jones. Encyclopedia Of Religion.9 (Second ed.). Thomas Gale, Macmillan Reference USA. p. 6090. "...Moreover, not a single woman is listed: the repeated attempts to show that women might belong to the cult are wishful thinking (Piccottini, 1994)."
David, Jonathan (2000). "The Exclusion of Women in the Mithraic Mysteries: Ancient or Modern?". Numen.47 (2): 121–141. doi:10.1163/156852700511469 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）., at p. 121.
Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.144, referencing Caesares 336C in the translation of W.C. Wright. Hermes addresses Julian: "As for you ... , I have granted you to know Mithras the Father. Keep his commandments, thus securing for yourself an anchor-cable and safe mooring all through your life, and, when you must leave the world, having every confidence that the god who guides you will be kindly disposed."
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 29-30: "Mithras also found a place in the 'pagan revival' that occurred, particularly in the western empire, in the latter half of the fourth century AD. For a brief period, especially in Rome, the cult enjoyed, along with others, a last efflorescence, for which we have evidence from among the highest circles of the senatorial order. One of these senators was Rufius Caeionius Sabinus, who in 377 dedicated an altar" to a long list of gods including Mithras.
Vermaseren, M. J. (1963), Mithras: the Secret God, London: Chatto and Windus, p. 29, "Other early evidence of the first decades BCE refers only to the reverence paid to Mithras without mentioning the mysteries: examples which may be quoted are the tomb inscriptions of King Antiochus I of Commagene at Nemrud Dagh, and of his father Mithridates at Arsameia on the Orontes. Both the kings had erected on vast terraces a number of colossal statues seated on thrones to the honor of their ancestral gods. At Nemrud we find in their midst King Antiochus (69–34 BCE and in the inscription Mithras is mentioned ..."
Vermaseren, M. J. (1956), Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, CIMRM 29, "Head of a beardless Mithras in Phrygian cap, point of which is missing."
Vermaseren, M. J. (1956), Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis mithriacae, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, CIMRM 28, "The gods are represented in a sitting position on a throne and are: Apollo-Mithras (see below); Tyche-Commagene; Zeus-Ahura-Mazda; Antiochus himself and finally Ares-Artagnes."
R D Barnett (1975). John R Hinnells, ed. Mithraic studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic studies, Vol. II. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 467–. "According to Vermaseren, there was a Mithras cult in the Fayum in the third century BC, and according to Pettazzoni the figure of Aion has its iconographic origin in Egypt."
R D Barnett (1975). John R Hinnells, ed. Mithraic studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic studies, Vol. II. Manchester University Press ND. pp. 467–468. "I ... see these figures or some of them in the impression of the remarkable royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni (circa 1450 BCE great-great-grandfather of Kurtiwaza), the only royal Mitannian seal that we possess ... Mithra-tauroctonos, characteristically kneeling on the bull to despatch it. We can even see also the dog and snake ... below him are twin figures, one marked by a star, each fighting lions ... below a winged disc between lions and ravens, stands a winged, human-headed lion, ..."
Beck, Roger. "On Becoming a Mithraist New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries". In Leif E. Vaage, et al. Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity. p. 182. "The origins and spread of the Mysteries are matters of perennial debate among scholars of the cult."
Ulansey, David. "The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 2011-03-20. "Our earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st Century BCE: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 BCE a large band of pirates based in Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites of Mithras". The earliest physical remains of the cult date from around the end of the 1st Century CE, and Mithraism reached its height of popularity in the third century."
C.M.Daniels, "The role of the Roman army in the spread and practice of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnells (ed.) Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Manchester University Press (1975), vol. 2, p. 250: "Traditionally there are two geographical regions where Mithraism first struck root in the Roman empire: Italy and the Danube. Italy I propose to omit, as the subject needs considerable discussion, and the introduction of the cult there, as witnessed by its early dedicators, seems not to have been military. Before we turn to the Danube, however, there is one early event (rather than geographical location) which should perhaps be mentioned briefly in passing. This is the supposed arrival of the cult in Italy as a result of Pompey the Great’s defeat of the Cilician pirates, who practiced ‘strange sacrifices of their own ... and celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithra continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them’. Suffice it to say that there is neither archaeological nor allied evidence for the arrival of Mithraism in the West at that time, nor is there any ancient literary reference, either contemporary or later. If anything, Plutarch’s mention carefully omits making the point that the cult was introduced into Italy at that time or by the pirates."
Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. Online here (2) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. Online here (4) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） CIMRM 362 a , b = el l, VI 732 = Moretti, lGUR I 179: "Soli | Invicto Mithrae | T . Flavius Aug. lib. Hyginus | Ephebianus | d. d. – but the Greek title is just "`Hliwi Mithrai". The name "Flavius" for an imperial freedman dates it between 70–136 CE. The Greek section refers to a pater of the cult named Lollius Rufus, evidence of the existence of the rank system at this early date.
Israel Roll, The mysteries of Mithras in the Roman Orient: the problem of origin, in: "Journal of Mithraic Studies", Volume II, No. 1, pages 53-68. Reference given is: Dunand, M., Le temple d'Echmoun a Sidon, Essai de chronologie, Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth 26, 1973 (appeared in 1975), p.7-25 (plate XIII left). Also mentioned by Roger Beck, Mithraism since Franz Cumont, ANRW II, p.2013 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "A cippus from Sidon (DUNAND 1973) attests a ἱερεύς of Mithras in A.D. 140/141."
Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174. p. 150.
C. M. Daniels, "The Roman army and the spread of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnels, Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, 1975, Manchester University Press, pp. 249–274. "The considerable movement [of civil servants and military] throughout the empire was of great importance to Mithraism, and even with the very fragmentary and inadequate evidence that we have it is clear that the movement of troops was a major factor in the spread of the cult. Traditionally there are two geographical regions where Mithraism first struck root: Italy and the Danube. Italy I propose to omit, as the subject needs considerable discussion, and the introduction of the cult there, as witnessed by its early dedicators, seems not to have been military. Before we turn to the Danube, however, there is one early event (rather than geographical location) which should perhaps be mentioned briefly in passing. This is the supposed arrival of the cult in Italy as a result of Pompey the Great's defeat of Cilician pirates, who practiced ‘strange sacrifices of their own ... and celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithras continue to the present time, have been first instituted by them’." (ref. Plutarch, Pompey 24–25) Suffice it to say that there is neither archaeological nor allied evidence for the arrival of Mithraism in the west at that time, nor is there any ancient literary reference, either contemporary or later. If anything, Plutarch’s mention carefully omits making the point that the cult was introduced into Italy at that time or by the pirates. Turning to the Danube, the earliest dedication from that region is an altar to ‘Mitrhe’ (sic) set up by C. Sacidus Barbarus, a centurion of XV Appolinaris, stationed at the time at Carnuntum in Pannonia (Deutsch-Altenburg, Austria). The movements of this legion are particularly informative." The article then goes on to say that XV Appolinaris was originally based at Carnuntum, but between 62–71 CE transferred to the east, first in the Armenian campaign, and then to put down the Jewish uprising. Then 71–86 back in Carnuntum, then 86–105 intermittently in the Dacian wars, then 105–114 back in Carnuntum, and finally moved to Cappadocia in 114.
C. M. Daniels, "The Roman army and the spread of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnels, Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, 1975, Manchester University Press, p. 263. The first dateable Mithraeum outside italy is from Böckingen on the Neckar, where a centurion of the legion VIII Augustus dedicated two altars, one to Mithras and the other (dated 148) to Apollo.
Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158. p. 153: "At present this is the only Mithraeum known in Roman Palestine." p. 154: "It is difficult to assign an exact date to the founding of the Caesarea Maritima Mithraeum. No dedicatory plaques have been discovered that might aid in the dating. The lamps found with the taurectone medallion are from the end of the first century to the late 3rd century CE. Other pottery and coins from the vault are also from this era. Therefore it is speculated that this Mithraeum developed toward the end of the 1st century and remained active until the late 3rd Century. This matches the dates assigned to the Dura-Europos and the Sidon Mithraea."
Richard Gordon, "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection)", Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, 1978, p.148-174. Online here. p. 153.
Beskow, Per, "The routes of early Mithraism", in Études mithriaques, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin (ed.). p. 14: "Another possible piece of evidence is offered by five terracotta plaques with a tauroctone, found in Crimea and taken into the records of Mithraic monuments by Cumont and Vermaseren. If they are Mithraic, they are certainly the oldest known representations of Mithras tauroctone; the somewhat varying dates given by Russian archaeologists will set the beginning of the 1st century C.E. as a terminus ad quem, which is also said to have been confirmed by the stratigraphic conditions." Note 20 gives the publication as W. Blawatsky / G. Kolchelenko, Le culte de Mithra sur la cote spetentrionale de la Mer Noire, Leiden 1966, p. 14f.
... the area [the Crimea] is of interest mainly because of the terracotta plaques from Kerch (five, of which two are in Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae（英语：CIMRM） as numbers 11 and 12). These show a bull-killing figure and their probable date (second half of 1st Century BCE to first half of 1st century AD) would make them the earliest tauroctonies – if it is Mithras that they portray. Their iconography is significantly different from that of the standard tauroctony (e.g. in the Attis-like exposure of the god's genitals). Roger Beck, Mithraism since Franz Cumont, Aufsteig und Niedergang der romischen Welt, II 17.4 (1984), p. 2019 (3) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Beskow, Per, The routes of early Mithraism, in Études mithriaques Ed. Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. p. 15: "The plaques are typical Bosporan terracottas ... At the same time it must be admitted that the plaques have some strange features which make it debatable if this is really Mithra(s). Most striking is the fact that his genitals are visible as they are in the iconography of Attis, which is accentuated by a high anaxyrides. Instead of the tunic and flowing cloak he wears a kind of jacket, buttoned over the breast with only one button, perhaps the attempt of a not so skillful artist to depict a cloak. The bull is small and has a hump and the tauroctone does not plunge his knife into the flank of the bull but holds it lifted. The nudity gives it the character of a fertility god and if we want to connect it directly with the Mithraic mysteries it is indeed embarrassing that the first one of these plaques was found in a woman's tomb." Clauss, p. 156: "He is grasping one of the bull’s horns with his left hand, and wrenching back its head; the right arm is raised to deliver the death-blow. So far, this god must be Mithras. But in sharp contrast with the usual representations [of Mithras], he is dressed in a jacket-like garment, fastened at the chest with a brooch, which leaves his genitals exposed – the iconography typical of Attis."
Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1975). Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule, Part 1 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. pp. 468, 469. ISBN90-04-09271-4 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 2011-03-16. "... the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary reference to them. This is by the Latin poet Statius who, writing about 80 CE., described Mithras as one who "twists the unruly horns beneath the rocks of a Persian cave". Only a little later (c. 100 CE.) Plutarch attributed an Anatolian origin to the Mysteries, for according to him the Cilician pirates whom Pompey defeated in 67 BCE. "celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithras continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them"."
E.D. Francis "Plutarch's Mithraic pirates", an appendix to the article by Franz Cummont "The Dura Mithraeum" in John R. Hinnells Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the first international congress Vol 1, pp. 207–210. Manchester University Press, 1975. (The reference to Servius is in a lengthy footnote to page 208.) Google books link （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
C.M.Daniels, "The role of the Roman army in the spread and practice of Mithraism" in John R. Hinnells (ed) Mithraic Studies: proceedings of the first International congress of Mithraic Studies, Manchester University Press (1975), vol. 2, p. 250: "Traditionally there are two geographical regions where Mithraism first struck root in the Roman empire: Italy and the Danube. Italy I propose to omit, as the subject needs considerable discussion, and the introduction of the cult there, as witnessed by its early dedicators, seems not to have been military. Before we turn to the Danube, however, there is one early event (rather than geographical location) which should perhaps be mentioned briefly in passing. This is the supposed arrival of the cult in Italy as a result of Pompey the Great's defeat of the Cilician pirates, who practiced 'strange sacrifices of their own ... and celebrated certain secret rites, amongst which those of Mithra continue to the present time, having been first instituted by them'. Suffice it to say that there is neither archaeological nor allied evidence for the arrival of Mithraism in the West at that time, nor is there any ancient literary reference, either contemporary or later. If anything, Plutarch's mention carefully omits making the point that the cult was introduced into Italy at that time or by the pirates."
Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 2011-05-15. "In the Cumontian scenario this episode cannot mark the definitive moment of transfer, for Mithraism in that scenario was already established in Rome, albeit on a scale too small to have left any trace in the historical or archaeological record. Nevertheless, it could have been a spur to Mithraism’s emergence on to the larger stage of popular appeal."
Porphyry, De antro nympharum (On the Cave of the Nymphs) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） 2: "For, as Eubulus says, Zoroaster was the first who consecrated in the neighboring mountains of Persia, a spontaneously produced cave, florid, and having fountains, in honor of Mithra, the maker and father of all things; |12 a cave, according to Zoroaster, bearing a resemblance of the world, which was fabricated by Mithra. But the things contained in the cavern being arranged according to commensurate intervals, were symbols of the mundane elements and climates."
Porphyry, De antro nympharum (On the Cave of the Nymphs), 6: "For according to Eubulus, Zoroaster first of all among the neighboring mountains of Persia, consecrated a natural cave, florid and watered with fountains, in honor of Mithras the father of all things: a cave in the opinion of Zoroaster bearing a resemblance of the world fabricated by Mithras. But the things contained in the cavern, being disposed by certain intervals, according to symmetry and order, were symbols of the elements and climates of the world."
Porphyry, De antro nympharum (On the Cave of the Nymphs) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） 11: "Hence, a place near to the equinoctial circle was assigned to Mithra as an appropriate seat. And on this account he bears the sword of Aries, which is a martial sign. He is likewise carried in the Bull, which is the sign of Venus. For Mithra. as well as the Bull, is the Demiurgus and lord of generation."
Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras cult in the Roman empire. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. p. 17. "De antro 6 is actually the sole explicit testimony from antiquity as to the intent of Mithraism’s mysteries and the means by which that intent was realized. Porphyry, moreover, was an intelligent and well-placed theoretician of contemporary religion, with access to predecessors’ studies, now lost."
Meyer, Marvin (2006). "The Mithras Liturgy". In A.J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan. The historical Jesus in context. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 180. ISBN0-691-00991-0 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. (The reference is at line 482 of the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris. The Mithras Liturgy comprises lines 475–834 of the Papyrus.)
Meyer, Marvin (2006). "The Mithras Liturgy". In A. J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan. The historical Jesus in context. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 180–182. ISBN0-691-00991-0 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Eisenbrauns. pp. 148–. ISBN978-0-931464-73-7 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 19 March 2011. "Franz Cumont, one of the greatest students of Mithraism, theorized that the roots of the Roman mystery religion were in ancient Iran. He identified the ancient Aryan deity who appears in Persian literature as Mithras with the Hindu god Mitra of the Vedic hymns."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 10. ISBN0-19-506788-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "In the course of the First International Congress, two scholar in particular presented devastating critiques of Cumont's Iranian hypothesis ... One, John Hinnells, was the organizer of the conference ... Of more importance in the long run, however, was the even more radical paper presented by R.L.Gordon ..."
John R. Hinnells, "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene" in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, pp. 303–304 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "Nevertheless we would not be justified in swinging to the opposite extreme from Cumont and Campbell and denying all connection between Mithraism and Iran."
John R. Hinnells, "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene" in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, pp. 303–304 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "Since Cumont’s reconstruction of the theology underlying the reliefs in terms of the Zoroastrian myth of creation depends upon the symbolic expression of the conflict of good and evil, we must now conclude that his reconstruction simply will not stand. It receives no support from the Iranian material and is in fact in conflict with the ideas of that tradition as they are represented in the extant texts. Above all, it is a theoretical reconstruction which does not accord with the actual Roman iconography. What, then, do the reliefs depict? And how can we proceed in any study of Mithraism? I would accept with R. Gordon that Mithraic scholars must in future start with the Roman evidence, not by outlining Zoroastrian myths and then making the Roman iconography fit that scheme. ... Unless we discover Euboulus’ history of Mithraism we are never likely to have conclusive proof for any theory. Perhaps all that can be hoped for is a theory which is in accordance with the evidence and commends itself by (mere) plausibility."
John R. Hinnells, "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene" in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, p. 292: "Indeed, one can go further and say that the portrayal of Mithras given by Cumont is not merely unsupported by Iranian texts but is actually in serious conflict with known Iranian theology. Cumont reconstructs a primordial life of the god on earth, but such a concept is unthinkable in terms of known, specifically Zoroastrian, Iranian thought where the gods never, and apparently never could, live on earth. To interpret Roman Mithraism in terms of Zoroastrian thought and to argue for an earthly life of the god is to combine irreconcilables. If it is believed that Mithras had a primordial life on earth, then the concept of the god has changed so fundamentally that the Iranian background has become virtually irrelevant."
Martin, Luther H. (2004). Foreword. in Beck, Roger B. (2004). Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works With New Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN0-7546-4081-7 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）., p. xiv.
Bianchi, Ugo. "The Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Tehran, September 1975" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-20. "I welcome the present tendency to question in historical terms the relations between Eastern and Western Mithraism, which should not mean obliterating what was clear to the Romans themselves, that Mithras was a ‘Persian’ (in wider perspective: an Indo-Iranian) god."
Beck, Roger B. (2004). Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works With New Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN0-7546-4081-7 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）., p. 28 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "Since the 1970s scholars of western Mithraism have generally agreed that Cumont's master narrative of east-west transfer is unsustainable"; although he adds that "recent trends in the scholarship on Iranian religion, by modifying the picture of that religion prior to the birth of the western mysteries, now render a revized Cumontian scenario of east-west transfer and continuities now viable."
Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras cult in the Roman empire. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. pp. 48–50. "... an indubitable residuum of things Persian in the Mysteries and a better knowledge of what constituted actual Mazdaism have allowed modern scholars to postulate for Roman Mithraism a continuing Iranian theology. This indeed is the main line of Mithraic scholarship, the Cumontian model which subsequent scholars accept, modify, or reject. For the transmission of Iranian doctrine from East to West, Cumont postulated a plausible, if hypothetical, intermediary: the Magusaeans of the Iranian diaspora in Anatolia. More problematic, and never properly addressed by Cumont or his successors, is how real-life Roman Mithraists subsequently maintained a quite complex and sophisticated Iranian theology behind an occidental facade. Other than the images at Dura of the two ‘magi’ with scrolls, there is no direct and explicit evidence for the carriers of such doctrines. ... Up to a point, Cumont’s Iranian paradigm, especially in Turcan’s modified form, is certainly plausible."
Edwell, Peter. "Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun. Reviewed by Peter Edwell, Macquarie University, Sydney" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 2011-06-14. "The study of the ancient mystery cult of Mithraism has been heavily influenced over the last century by the pioneering work of Franz Cumont followed by that of M. J. Vermaseren. Ever since Cumont’s volumes first appeared in the 1890s, his ideas on Mithraism have been influential, particularly with regard to the quest for Mithraic doctrine. His emphasis on the Iranian features of the cult is now less influential with the Iranising influences generally played down in scholarship over the last thirty years. While the long shadow cast by Cumont is sometimes susceptible to exaggeration, recent research such as that of Robert Turcan demonstrates that Cumont’s influence is still strong."
Belayche, Nicole. "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs". In Jörg Rüpke（英语：Jörg Rüpke）. A Companion to Roman Religion. p. 291. "Cumont, who still stands as an authoritative scholar for historians of religions, analyzed the diffusion of "oriental religions" as filling a psychological gap and satisfying new spiritualistic needs (1929: 24–40)."
Beck, Roger. "On Becoming a Mithraist New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries". In Leif E. Vaage, et al. Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity. p. 182. "The old Cumontian model of formation in, and diffusion from, Anatolia (see Cumont 1956a, 11–32; cf. pp. 33–84 on propagation in the West) is by no means dead – nor should it be. On the role of the army in the spread of Mithraism, see Daniels 1975."
Beck, Roger (2002). "Mithraism" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopædia Iranica （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Costa Mesa: Mazda Pub. Retrieved 2007-10-28. "Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios – was one of the deities of the syncretic Graeco-Iranian royal cult founded by Antiochus I (q.v.), king of the small but prosperous buffer state of Commagene (q.v.) in the mid 1st century BCE."
Beck, Roger. "The mysteries of Mithras: A new account of their genesis" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-23. "... It may properly be called a ‘Cumontian scenario’ for two reasons: First, because it looks again to Anatolia and Anatolians; Secondly, and more importantly, because it hews to the methodological line first set by Cumont."
Beck, R., 2002: "Discontinuity’s weaker form of argument postulates re-invention among and for the denizens of the Roman empire (or certain sections thereof), but re-invention by a person or persons of some familiarity with Iranian religion in a form current on its western margins in the first century CE. Merkelbach (1984: pp. 75–77), expanding on a suggestion of M. P. Nilsson, proposes such a founder from eastern Anatolia, working in court circles in Rome. So does Beck (1998), with special focus on the dynasty of Commagene (see above). Jakobs 1999 proposes a similar scenario."
Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 2011-05-16. "The time has come to review the principal scholarship which has argued for transmission and continuity based on the postulated similarities ... three argue for continuity in the strongest terms. A.D.H. Bivar (1998, and earlier studies mentioned there) argues that western Mithraism was but one of several manifestations of Mithra-worship current in antiquity across a wide swathe of Asia and Europe. L.A. Campbell (1968) argues in the Cumontian tradition ... extraordinarily detailed and learned form of Zoroastrian Mazdaism. A continuity as thoroughgoing, though not quite so systematic ideologically, was proposed in several studies by G. Widengren (1965: pp. 222–232; 1966; 1980)."
Antonía Tripolitis (2002). Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman age. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 3–. ISBN978-0-8028-4913-7 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "It originated in Vedic, India, migrated to Persia by way of Babylon, and then westward through the Hellenized East, and finally across the length and breadth of the Hellenistic-Roman world. On its westward journey, it incorporated many of the features of the cultures in which it found itself."
Gordon, Richard L. (1978). "The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British Museum, Townley Collection". Journal of Mithraic Studies II: 148–174.. pp. 150–151: "The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have occurred relatively rapidly late in the reign of Antoninus Pius and under Marcus Aurelius (9). By that date, it is clear, the mysteries were fully institutionalized and capable of relatively stereotyped self-reproduction through the medium of an agreed, and highly complex, symbolic system reduced in iconography and architecture to a readable set of 'signs'. Yet we have good reason to believe that the establishment of at least some of those signs is to be dated at least as early as the Flavian period or in the very earliest years of the second century. Beyond that we cannot go ..."
Beck, R., Merkelbach's Mithras, p.299; Clauss, R., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 25: "... the astonishing spread of the cult in the later 2nd and early 3rd centuries AD ... This extraordinary expansion, documented by the archaeological monuments ..."
Clauss, R., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 25, referring to Porphyry, De Abstinentia, 2.56 and 4.16.3 (for Pallas) and De antro nympharum 6 (for Euboulus and his history).
Loeb, D. Magie (1932). Scriptores Historiae Augustae: Commodus. pp. IX.6: Sacra Mithriaca homicidio vero polluit, cum illic aliquid ad speciem timoris vel dici vel fingi soleat "He desecrated the rites of Mithras with actual murder, although it was customary in them merely to say or pretend something that would produce an impression of terror".
Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 24: "The cult of Mithras never became one of those supported by the state with public funds, and was never admitted to the official list of festivals celebrated by the state and army – at any rate as far as the latter is known to us from the Feriale Duranum（英语：Feriale Duranum）, the religious calendar of the units at Dura-Europos in Coele Syria;" [where there was a Mithraeum] "the same is true of all the other mystery cults too." He adds that at the individual level, various individuals did hold roles both in the state cults and the priesthood of Mithras.
Clauss, M., The Roman cult of Mithras, pp. 29–30: "Mithras also found a place in the ‘pagan revival’ that occurred, particularly in the western empire, in the latter half of the 4th century CE. For a brief period, especially in Rome, the cult enjoyed, along with others, a last efflorescence, for which we have evidence from among the highest circles of the senatorial order. One of these senators was Rufius Caeionius Sabinus, who in 377 dedicated an altar" to a long list of gods that includes Mithras.
Ulansey, David. "The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 2011-03-20. "Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism."
Michael Speidel (1980). Mithras-Orion: Greek hero and Roman army god （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. pp. 1–. ISBN978-90-04-06055-5 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 27 March 2011. "As a mystery religion it engulfed the Roman empire during the first four centuries of our era. Mithraic sanctuaries are found from Roman Arabia to Britain, from the Danube to the Sahara, wherever the Roman soldier went. Christian apologetics fiercely fought the cult they feared., and during the late 4th century CE, as a victim of the Judaeo-Christian spirit of intolerance, Roman Mithraism was suppressed, its sanctuaries destroyed together with the last vestiges of religious freedom in the empire."
Martin, Luther H.; Beck, Roger (December 30, 2004). "Foreword". Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works With New Essays. Ashgate Publishing. pp. xiii. ISBN978-0-7546-4081-3 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "However, the cult was vigorously opposed by Christian polemicists, especially by Justin and Tertullian, because of perceived similarities between it and early Christianity. And with the anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor Theodosius during the final decade of the fourth century, Mithraism disappeared from the history of religions as a viable religious practice."
Vermaseren, M. J. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa in Rome （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Brill. p. 115. Retrieved 3 April 2011. "The ground-plan ... shows clearly that the presbytery of the Church lies over the ante-Room V of the Mithraeum and that the apse covers the first part of the main hall W, including the niches of Cautes and Cautopates. One cannot fail to see the symbolism of this arrangement, which expresses in concrete terms that Christ keeps Mithras "under". The same also applies at S. Clemente."
humphries, mark (10 December 2008). Susan Ashbrook Harvey, David G. Hunter, ed. The Oxford handbook of early Christian studies （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Oxford University Press. pp. 95–. ISBN978-0-19-927156-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 3 April 2011. "In some instances, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects could suggest precautions were being taken against Christian attacks; but elsewhere, such as along the Rhine frontier, coin sequences suggest that Mithraic shrines were abandoned in the context of upheavals resulting from barbarian invasions, and that purely religious considerations cannot explain the end of Mithraism in that region (Sauer 1996)."
Cumont, Franz (1903). McCormack, Thomas J. (trans.), ed. The Mysteries of Mithra. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN0-486-20323-9 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. pp. 206 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "A few clandestine conventicles may, with stubborn persistence, have been held in the subterranean retreats of the palaces. The cult of the Persian god possibly existed as late as the fifth century in certain remote cantons of the Alps and the Vosges. For example, devotion to the Mithraic rites long persisted in the tribe of the Anauni, masters of a flourishing valley, of which a narrow defile closed the mouth." This is unreferenced; but the French text in Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra tom. 1, p. 348 has a footnote.
The Greater [Bundahishn] IV.19-20 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "19. He let loose Greed, Needfulness, [Pestilence,] Disease, Hunger, Illness, Vice and Lethargy on the body of Gav' and Gayomard. 20. Before his coming to the 'Gav', Ohrmazd gave the healing Cannabis, which is what one calls 'banj', to the' Gav' to eat, and rubbed it before her eyes, so that her discomfort, owing to smiting, [sin] and injury, might decrease; she immediately became feeble and ill, her milk dried up, and she passed away."
Hinnels, John R. "Reflections on the bull-slaying scene". Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Mithraic Studies. Manchester UP. pp. II.290–312., p. 291
Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp.147–158, p.154
Beck, Roger, "Astral Symbolism in the Tauroctony: A statistical demonstration of the Extreme Improbability of Unintended Coincidence in the Selection of Elements in the Composition" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays (2004), p.257.
Beck, Roger, "The Rise and Fall of Astral Identifications of the Tauroctonous Mithras" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays (2004), p.236.
Beck, Roger, "In the place of the lion: Mithras in the tauroctony" in Beck on Mithraism: collected works with new essays (2004), p. 270–276 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
Meyer, Marvin (2006). "The Mithras Liturgy". In A.J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan. The historical Jesus in context. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 179–180. ISBN0-691-00991-0 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "...The Mithras Liturgy reflects the world of Mithraism, but precisely how it relates to other expressions of the mysteries of Mithras is unclear. ... With the leg of the bull, interpreted astronomically, the Mithraic god, or Mithras, turns the sphere of heaven around, and if the text suggests that Mithras "moves heaven and turns it back (antistrephousa)," Mithras may be responsible for the astronomical precession of the equinoxes, the progressive change in the earth's orientation in space caused by a wobble in the earth's rotation (so Ulansey)."
Manfred Clauss., The Roman cult of Mithras, p.158: "There are many examples illustrating the readiness of Mithraists to worship other divinities. ... The range of Graeco-Roman divinities to whom votives were offered in mithraea is quite considerable. ... Of all these deities, I would just like to stress the significance of Mercury for many Mithraic congregations."
M. Clauss, p.70 n.84. Zenobius Proverbia 5.78 (in Corpus paroemiographorum Graecorum （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） vol. 1, p.151). Theon of Smyrna gives the same list but substitutes Phanes. See Albert de Jong, Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin literature, p.309 on this; and more info on the Zenobius passage here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） and the Theon passage here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
Ulansey, David, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, pp.120-1. Excerpts here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "The identification between Mithras and Phanes indicated by CIMRM 860 is also explicitly attested by an inscription found in Rome dedicated to 'Zeus-Helios-Mithras-Phanes' and another inscription dedicated to 'Helios-Mithras-Phanes'."
Clauss, M. The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 70, photo p.71. CIMRM 860 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） is now at the Museum of Antiquities, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU.
John Bell, "A catalogue of the Roman altars and inscribed and sculptured stones in the collection of the society of antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne", in The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 166 (1839), p.183 f., p.184: "52. - A sculptured bust of Mithras between the two hemispheres, surrounded by the twelve signs of the Zodiac; it was also found in the Mithraic Cave at Housesteads, between nos. 51. and 53. -- Presented by the same". (i.e. by George Gibson, esq. Other entries indicate that all the material was found in 1822)
Vivienne J. Walters, The cult of Mithras in the Roman provinces of Gaul, p.108-110, item 39 with bibliography, "A stone relief from Trier (Augusta Treverorum), now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier, Inventory no. S.T.9981. See plate XVIII. Google books preview here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "At Housesteads, which has produced perhaps the closest parallel for the Trier relief, there was a cult relief behind the egg birth and flanking altars." On p.25 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） the author suggests that the same may have been true here at Trier.
Hubertus von Gall, The Lion-Headed and the Human-Headed God in the Mithraic Mysteries in: Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin(ed.), Études Mithriaques, p.511-526, p.522. Google Books preview here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. CIMRM 695-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, fig. 197. Von Gall states that some scholars believe that the Housesteads relief is in fact a Phanes sculpture which has been reused by the Mithras cult.
Vermaseren, M., The miraculous birth of Mithras, p.287 n.10. The relief is in the Estense Museum in Modena, Italy. See also F. Cumont, Mithra et l'Orphisme, RHR CIX, 1934, 63 ff; M. P. Nilsson, "The Syncretistic Relief at Modena", Symb. Osi. XXIV, 1945, 1 ff.
Clauss, p.146: "Roman Mithras is the invincible sun-god, Sol Invictus. This is the burden, repeated a hundred times over, of the votive inscriptions from the second to the fourth centuries AD, whether in the form Sol Invictus Mithras, or Deus Sol Invictus Mithras, or Deus Sol Mithras, or Sol Mithras. There do not seem to be any significant regional or temporal variations among such formulae. In the very earliest epigraphic evidence for the Roman cult of Mithras, the god is already invoked as Sol Invictus Mithras. These facts are confirmed by the numerous votive offerings to Sol, Deus Sol, Sol Invictus, and Deus Invictus Sol which were put up in mithraea."; Clauss, p.79: "Victory is what characterises the god; his one unvarying epithet is Invictus."
Clauss, p.147: "On the other hand, however, Mithras and Sol are two separate deities, as can amply be demonstrated."; p.148: "Mithras is Sol, and at the same time Sol is Mithras' companion. Paradoxical relationships of this kind are to be found between many deities in antiquity. People in the ancient world did not feel bound by fixed credos and confessions which had to be consistent to the last detail: in the area of religion, a truly blessed anarchy held sway."
Erika Manders, Coining Images of Power: Patterns in the Representation of Roman Emperors on Imperial Coinage, A.D. 193-284, Brill, 2012, p.130 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "Sol, however, did not have the exclusive right to appear as pacator orbis and invictus on third-century coins. Jupiter, Aurelian, Probus and Numerian appear as pacator orbis too, while, apart from Sol, other gods (Jupiter, Hercules and Mars) received the epithet invictus." References are given to coin types.
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.23-4: "The cult of Mithras never became one of those supported by the state with public funds, and was never admitted to the official list of festivals celebrated by the state and the army - at any rate, in so far as the latter is known to us from the Feriale Duranum, the religious calendar of the units at Dura-Europos in Coele Syria; the same is true of all other mystery cults too. This of course does not exclude the possibility that the emperors and their circle may have felt a more than casual personal sympathy for the cult, but they certainly tolerated, perhaps even encouraged, their subjects' adherence."
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.44: "One could also include Jupiter Dolichenus here: not only have votives to him been discovered in mithraea (V 1208 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）), but Mithraic inscriptions and cult-reliefs have been found in dolichena (V 70 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, p. 157; V 468 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）-70; 1729 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）)."
Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (September 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". In Lewis M. Hopfe. Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–. ISBN978-0-931464-73-7 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 19 March 2011. "... The Christian's view of this rival religion is extremely negative, because they regarded it as a demonic mockery of their own faith."
Gordon, Richard. "FAQ" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 2011-03-22. "In general, in studying Mithras, and the other Greco-oriental mystery cults, it is good practice to steer clear of all information provided by Christian writers: they are not 'sources', they are violent apologists, and one does best not to believe a word they say, however tempting it is to supplement our ignorance with such stuff."
Tuggy, Dale & Zalta, Edward N. (ed.) (2016). "History of Trinitarian Doctrines" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. 66 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body; "and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood; "and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn."
Fritz Graf, "Baptism and Graeco-Roman Mystery Cults," in "Rituals of Purification, Rituals of Initiation," in Ablution, Initiation, and Baptism: Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity (Walter deGruyter, 2011), p.105.
Renan, E., Marc-Aurele et la fin du monde antique. Paris, 1882, p. 579 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "On peut dire que, si le christianisme eût été arrêté dans sa croissance par quelque maladie mortelle, le monde eût été mithriaste."
Obviously; but remarked also by E. Yamauchi in various places. He is quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007, p.175:
'"Needless to say," continued Yamauchi, "Renan's work, published nearly 150 years ago, has no value as a source. He knew very little about Mithraism, and besides, we know a lot more about it today. Yet this is a quote that's commonly used by people who don't understand the context. It's simply farfetched."'.
Yamauchi delivered a paper at the IInd International Congress on Mithraic Studies in Tehran in 1975; E. Yamauchi, 'The Apocalypse of Adam, Mithraism and Pre-Christian Gnosticism', J. Duchesne-Guillemin (ed.), Études Mithraiques, (Acta Iranica IV; Leiden/Teheran/Liège, 1978), pp. 537-63. In "Pre-Christian Gnosticism, the New Testament and Nag Hammadi in recent debate", Themelios 10.1 (September 1984): 22-27, online here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, Yamauchi refers to "my attempt to date the ApocAd on the basis of the allusion to the well-known Mithraic motif of the 'birth from a rock' (CG V, 80.24-25) in a paper which I presented at the IInd International Congress of Mithraic Studies at Teheran in 1975.90 On the basis of the epigraphic and iconographic evidence collected by M. J. Vermaseren, I sought to demonstrate that this topos was not known before the second century AD and that the probable provenance for knowledge of such a motif for a Gnostic writer was Italy." Edwin M. Yamauchi, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?" Christianity Today on March 15, 1974 and March 29, 1974. Online here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
J. A. Ezquerra, translated by R.Gordon, Romanising oriental Gods: myth, salvation and ethics in the cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras. Brill, 2008, pp.202–203: "Many people have erroneously supposed that all religions have a sort of universalist tendency or ambition. In the case of Mithraism, such an ambition has often been taken for granted and linked to a no less questionable assumption, that there was a rivalry between Mithras and Christ for imperial favour. ... If Christianity had failed, the Roman empire would never have become Mithraist." Google books preview here (6) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
Boyce, Mary (2001) [1979]. Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Routledge. p. 99. ISBN978-0-415-23902-8 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Retrieved 17 March 2011. "Mithraism proselytized energetically to the west, and for a time presented a formidable challenge to Christianity; but it is not yet known how far, or how effectively, it penetrated eastward. A Mithraeum has been uncovered at the Parthian fortress-town of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates; but Zoroastrianism itself may well have been a barrier to its spread into Iran proper."
"Mithra" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2011-04-09. "Mithra, also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, ... In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the cult of Mithra, carried and supported by the soldiers of the Roman Empire, was the chief rival to the newly developing religion of Christianity."
Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. pp. 3 to 4. ISBN0-19-506788-6 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "... the study of Mithraism is also of great important for our understanding of what Arnold Toynbee has called the 'Crucible of Christianity', the cultural matrix in which the Christian religion came to birth out of the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean. For Mithraism was one of Christianity's major competitors in the Roman Empire ... No doubt Renan's statement is somewhat exaggerated."
Gary Lease, "Mithraism and Christianity", in: ANRW II, p.1328 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）: "To be specific, it is clear that the few scattered remarks in Christian polemical literature against Mithraism, together with the scanty archaeological remains of the Mithraic religion, do not bear out a direct influence of one religion upon the other."
Clauss, M. The Roman Cult of Mithras, p.17, referencing Origen, "Contra Celsum" book 6, cc.22-24 where a ladder of seven steps is described, similar to one used by the Ophites. Clauss states that the borrowing was by the Mithraists, but nothing in Contra Celsum seems to say so.
M.J. Vermaseren, "Nuove indagini nell'area della basilica di S. Prisca in Roma", in Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome. Antiquity, n.s., 37, 2 (1975), pp. 87-96: "Questi inni aprono ancora molte altre prospettive. Così il collega Hans Dieter Betz, professore all’Università di Claremont in California, ha pubblicato dopo the Excavations un articolo di grande valore intitolato "The Mithras inscriptions of Santa Prisca and the New Testament".(24) Il Betz fa notare specialmente il parallelismo di centri pensieri cristiani con idee espresse in questi inni pagani derivati da una fonte comune ellenistica. Oggi ognuno può affermare che proprio questo Umwelt ellenistico-romano è la causa fondamentale di queste concezioni simili nel cristianesimo e nel paganesimo, concezioni poi elaborate in diversi modi con un suo valore proprio. Per fortuna ognuno considera come completaménto sbagliato (25) una negazione di questo principio che quindi potrebbe condurre a risultati disastrosi per la scienza. In queste stesse fonti ellenistiche sono da ritrovare diverse idee comune al cristianesimo ed alle religioni misteriosofiche, come le ha chiamate mia volta Nicola Turchi.(26)" (These hymns are open to still other interpretations. Thus my colleague Hans Dieter Betz, professor of the university of Claremont in California, has published about "the excavations" an article of great value entitled, "The Mithras inscriptions of Santra Prisca and the New Testament".(24) Betz notes specially the parallelism between central Christian thought and the ideas expressed in these pagan hymns derived from a common hellenistic origin. Today everyone can say that precisely this Hellenistic-Roman Umwelt is the fundamental cause of those concepts which are similar between Christianity and paganism, concepts that are then elaborated differently in various ways. Thankfully everyone considers the denial of this as completely wrong (25), and which could lead to disastrous results for science. In these same Hellenistic sources may be found various ideas common to Christianity and the mysteriosophical religions, as my colleague Nicola Turchi has called them.(26))
Manfred Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p.66: "Light comes from the firmament, Mithras is the god of light, the new light which bursts forth each morning from the vault of heaven behind the mountains, and whose birthday is celebrated on 25 December. A late antique Syriac commentator describes this festival, and correctly observes that it later developed into the birthday of Christ: 'It was in fact customary among the pagans to celebrate the festival of the Sun's birthday on 25th December and to light bonfires in honor of the day. They even used to invite the Christian population to these rites. But when the teachers of the Church realized that Christians were allowing themselves to take part, they decided to observe the Feast of the True Birth on the same day.80' It may be that the Mithraists also celebrated the birthday of their god in public in a similar manner." The note 80 reads "Cited in CIL 1² 338-9." Clauss is mistaken here, however; the text is 13th century, by the scholiast to Dionysius bar Salibi, and does not refer to Mithras.
Clauss, Manfred. Mithras: Kult und Mysterien. München: Beck, 1990, p. 70: "... erwähnenswert wäre dass das Mithras-Kult keine öffentlichen Zeremonien kannte. Das Fest der natalis Invicti, der 25. Dezember, war ein allgemeines Sonnenfest und somit keineswegs auf die Mithras-Mysterien beschränkt. Es gab also im Mithras-Kult nichts vergleichbares zu den großen Feiern und Festlichkeiten anderer Kulte ...".
Panciera, Il materiale epigrafico dallo scavo del mitreo di S. Stefano Rotondo, in: Mysteria Mithrae (conference 1978 published 1979), p.87-126. Relevant portions online here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
Turcan, Robert, "Salut Mithriaque et soteriologie neoplatonicienne," La soteriologiea dei culti orientali nell'impero romano,eds. U. Bianchi and M. J. Vermaseren, Leiden 1982. pp. 103-105.
Clauss, M. The Roman Cult of Mithras, p.71-2: "The theme of the water-miracle is elaborated mainly in the Rhine-Danube area. Mithras is usually represented sitting on a stone and aiming a flexed bow at a rockface, in front of which there kneels a figure. Another figure sometimes grasps Mithras' knees in supplication, or stands behind him with his hand on his shoulder. The scene is particularly striking on the large altar from Poetovio I ... Mithras here is aiming his bow at a rockface, from which water will shortly gush forth - a person is standing in front of it ready to catch the water in his cupped hands. ... We may note that the figures who are generally shown taking part in this scene with Mithras are clothed just like the god. They must be the torch-bearers, present here just as they are at the rock-birth and the killing of the bull. This scene can thus be connected with one of the lines in the mithraeum under S. Prisca in Rome, which is addressed to a spring enclosed in the rock: 'You who have fed the twin brothers with nectar'.8 6 The spring is Mithras; the twins to whom he has given heavenly nourishment are the torch-bearers." (The Ptuj / Poetiovo reference seems to be CIMRM 1584)
Clauss, M. The Roman Cult of Mithras, p.72 continues: "Apart from the cult-meal, the water-miracle offers the clearest parallel with Christianity, spreading through the Empire at the same period as the mysteries of Mithras. The thinking that underlies these features of each cult is naturally rooted in the same traditions. The water-miracle is one of the wide-spread myths that originate from regions plagued by drought, and where the prosperity of humans and nature depends upon rain. Each in his own manner, Mithras and Christ embody water, initially as a concrete necessity, and then, very soon, as a symbol. Christ is referred to in the New Testament as the water of life. Many Christian sarcophagi depict the miracle of Moses striking the rock with his staff and causing water to flow (Exodus 17.3-6), as a symbol of immortality."
Per Beskow, "Branding in the Mysteries of Mithras?", in Mysteria Mithrae, ed. Ugo Bianchi (Leyden 1979), 487-501. He describes the entire idea as a "scholarly myth". See also FAQ （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） by Dr. Richard Gordon.
Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum 40: "if my memory still serves me, Mithra there, (in the kingdom of Satan, ) sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers; celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown."
Per Beskow, "Branding in the Mysteries of Mithras?", in Mysteria Mithrae, ed. Ugo Bianchi (Leyden 1979), 487-501. He describes the entire idea as a "scholarly myth". See also FAQ （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） by Dr. Richard Gordon; Luc Renaud, Les initiés aux mystères de Mithra étaient-ils marqués au front? Pour une relecture de Tertullien, De Praescr. 40, 4, in: Bonnet, C. / Ribichini, S. / Steuernagel, D. (ed.), Religioni in contatto nel Mediterraneo antico : modalità di diffusione e processi di interferenza, Actes de colloque (Come, mai 2006), Pisa / Rome, Fabrizio Serra Editore (Mediterranea, IV), 2007, p. 171-180. German translation here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
A. Deman, "Mithras and Christ: Some Iconographical Similarities," in: John R. Hinnells, Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, Manchester University Press, 1971, pp. 507-17. p.507.
A. Deman, "Mithras and Christ: Some Iconographical Similarities," in: John R. Hinnells, Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, Manchester University Press, 1971, pp. 507-17. p.508.
A. Deman, "Mithras and Christ: Some Iconographical Similarities," in: John R. Hinnells, Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, Manchester University Press, 1971, pp. 507-17. p.509.
A. Deman, "Mithras and Christ: Some Iconographical Similarities," in: John R. Hinnells, Mithraic Studies, vol. 2, Manchester University Press, 1971, pp. 507-17. p.510.
Lucrezia Spera, "Characteristics of the Christianization of Space in Late Antique Rome: New Considerations a Generation after Charles Pietri's Roma Christiana", in: Cities and Gods: religious space in transition, ed. Ted Kaizer &c., Peeters, 2013, p.121-142 (online here （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）, p.128: "In general, there may be some basis for the idea that on the Aventine as on the Caelian the planning of the Church of Rome was inserted to some extent within 'empty spaces' that began to appear in the urban network after the destabilising event of the sack of the City."
Milton Luiz Torres, "Christian Burial Practices at Ostia Antica: Backgrounds and Contexts with a Case Study of the Pianabella Basilica", Diss. 2008, p.72.[永久失效链接]: "There is also a mithraeum seemingly converted to Christian use at the Baths of Mithras (Fig. 6)."
David Stocker, "A Hitherto Unidentified Image of the Mithraic God Arimanius at Lincoln?", Britannia 29, 1998, p.359-363.
Cumont, Franz. Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra : pub. avec une introduction critique, 2 vols. 1894-6. Vol. 1 is an introduction, Vol. 2 is a collection of primary data, online at Archive.org here [2], and still of some value.
Harris, J. R. "Mithras at Hermopolis and Memphis", in Donald M. Bailey (ed), Archaeological Research in Roman Egypt (2004). Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Kaper, Olaf E. "Mithras im ptolemäischen Ägypten", in Peter C. Bol, Gabriele Kaminski, and Caterina Maderna (eds), Fremdheit-Eigenheit: Ägypten, Griechenland und Rom : Austausch und Verständnis (2004). Prestel.
Lane Fox, Robin, Pagans and Christians.
Nicholson, Oliver. The end of Mithraism, Antiquity, Volume: 69 Number: 263 Page: 358–362.
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