Hellenistic influence on Roman religion

[guy]

(Scene from HBO’s “Rome” of Atia partaking in a religious ceremony. A bull is sacrificed above her, drenching her in blood, while she seeks protection and return of her son Octavian who has gone missing.)

Here is a good review of the gods that Rome adopted from the Greek world:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Novosedoff]

2 hours ago, guy said:

Here is a good review of the gods that Rome adopted from the Greek world:

Isis is obviously not Greek, but Egyptian. Mithra ain't Greek too 🙂

[guy]

5 hours ago, Novosedoff said:

Isis is obviously not Greek, but Egyptian. Mithra ain't Greek too 🙂

I agree with you partially. Isis was an important part of the Hellenized Egypt. Serapis is a Greco Egyptian deity. Cybele was an important deity in rural Greece.

I agree, however, that Mithra was never popular in the Greek world. I imagine Mithra was associated with the Greeks' enemy Persia; thus, his worship was never totally embraced in Greece.

Nevertheless, the Roman god Mithras [note the added letter “s”] was worshiped throughout the Roman Empire, including Hadrian’s Wall. So, how did Mithras come to the Roman world? Plutarch gives us a hint:

 

“ According to the historian Plutarch, who lived in the first century A.D., the Romans became acquainted with Mithras through pirates from Cilicia, a province of Asia Minor. These were the pirates who constituted such a threat to Rome until Pompey drove them from the seas.

In his biography of this skilful general, Plutarch writes of the pirates: 'They brought to Olympus in Lycia strange offerings and performed some secret mysteries, which still in the cult of Mithras, first made known by them [the pirates]'. In the middle of the second century A.D. the historian Appian adds that the pirates came to know of the mysteries from the troops who were left behind by the defeated army of Mithridates Eupator. It is well established that all kinds of Eastern races were represented in that army.”

 

Interestingly, there is no evidence of Mithras found in the ruins of Pompeii (AD 79).

https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt2.htm

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by guy

[Novosedoff]

Yeah, the story of Pompey defeating the pirates of the Mediterranean who worshipped Mithras is well known. The curious thing, however, is that the majority of the Roman mithraeums the existence of which would be known to us today were actually constructed  around 100 CE, i.e. 150 years after Pompey.

There was an interesting paper in English by a Czech researcher not long ago. I attach 2 pages from it, which I find most interesting (I tend to collect things like that for quick reference)

 

As can be seen, most of the discoveries were made in Germany, which is kinda curious because the cult is obviously Asian.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Novosedoff

[guy]

1 hour ago, Novosedoff said:

As can be seen, most of the discoveries were made in Germany, which is kinda curious because the cult is obviously Asian

 

 

Novosedoff: Thanks for reading my posts. Here's another map of suspected Mithraic sites throughout the Empire. It's not surprising that most the sites were on the borders where the soldiers encamped since this cult was especially popular with the solders, most notably among the troops on the eastern borders.

Mithras: Roman army god - blue networks (weebly.com)

 

Some other maps:

 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by guy

[Novosedoff]

1 hour ago, guy said:

Some other maps:

The first map is interesting because I didn't know that there were so many Mithraic sites uncovered. Is there any description for each tag? I wonder what is the meaning of different colors (red, blue, yellow) of all those tags on the map?

The reason why I decided to bring up the issue of Mithraic sites is because the religion is often considered as rival to the Christianity. While we all know that the later proliferated mostly in the Eastern parts of the empire (with the exception of Rome) from the very first decades since its emergence. When we recall the Seven churches of Asia (from the Book of Revelation, which, as some folks say, is likely to be one of the earliest survived Christian documents), all of them were located in Anatolia.

The context of Mithaic and Christian myths is so close as if the later was copying everything from the first one (see below attachment)

Although, as we know it today, Mithraism was known in Syria from the earlier ages (Syria is adjacent to Anatolia), it appears from the above map that there are not many Mithraic sites uncovered in Anatolia. One possible explanation for this is that such sites in Anatolia were destroyed by Christian crackers later.  But then the natural question comes up: why didn't the same crackers reach out for Mithraic sites in Germany to bring them down as well?

We can also ask ourselves how come that the cult of Asian god Mithra became so widespread among the Roman legions stationed along the northern border of the empire in Germany?   Who were the people who served there? From where were they recruited? Could it be that the Syrian legionaries were fighting German barbarians circa 100 CE?

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Novosedoff

[guy]

20 hours ago, Novosedoff said:

We can also ask ourselves how come that the cult of Asian god Mithra became so widespread among the Roman legions stationed along the northern border of the empire in Germany?   Who were the people who served there? From where were they recruited? Could it be that the Syrian legionaries were fighting German barbarians circa 100 CE?

Those are good questions and that's a good explanation. It might be, however, that the sites in Germany have been more thoroughly excavated and preserved than some sites in the far reaches on the eastern Empire. This would give the false impression that the cult was more prominent in the more western Germany than the eastern borders of the Empire.