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Liber XXXVI · Zoroastrianism

Liber XXXVI · Zoroastrianism · Chapter V: Mithra & Mithraism

The Mithraeum: Temples, Grades and Initiation in Mithraism

Inside the Roman mithraeum: the cave as cosmos, benches and cult images, sites from Ostia to London, the seven grades, initiation ordeals and sacred meals.

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A mithraeum was the meeting place of the Roman mysteries of Mithras: a small, dark, cave-like hall with raised benches along both sides, where a group of male initiates shared sacred meals before an image of the god slaying a bull. More than a hundred such sanctuaries have been excavated across the Roman Empire, and together with a handful of literary reports they are the main evidence for the cult's seven grades of initiation and its rituals, which its members kept secret.

What Was a Mithraeum? The Cave as Image of the Cosmos§

The word mithraeum is a modern scholarly term. In Latin inscriptions the worshippers usually called their sanctuary a spelaeum or spelunca, "cave", and sometimes simply a temple. The choice of a cave reflected the central myth, in which Mithras slew the bull inside a cavern, and it gave the cult its characteristic architecture: halls were often built underground, inside existing buildings, or given vaulted ceilings and no windows, so that worshippers met in an artificial grotto lit by lamps.

The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry, writing in the late third century in his essay On the Cave of the Nymphs, preserves the fullest ancient explanation. Citing earlier authorities, he says that Zoroaster first dedicated a natural cave in the mountains of Persia, full of flowers and springs, to Mithras the maker and father of all, because the cave was an image of the cosmos that Mithras had made; its contents symbolised the elements and regions of the world. Whether or not this reflects what ordinary Mithraists believed, it shows that educated observers understood the mithraeum as a model of the universe, an interpretation that fits the many zodiacs, planets and starry ceilings found in the sanctuaries. On the cult as a whole and its debated Persian origins, see Mithra and Mithraism; on Porphyry's philosophy see Neoplatonism and theurgy.

Inside the Mithraeum: Benches, Cult Niche and Images§

Most mithraea were modest rectangles, often around ten to twenty-five metres long. A central aisle led from the entrance to the far end, flanked on each side by a raised masonry bench (podium), wide enough for men to recline on as at a Roman dinner. Some sanctuaries had an antechamber where initiates prepared, and small altars or basins were often set along the aisle.

At the far end, often in a niche or on a raised platform, stood the cult image: the tauroctony, a relief or painting of Mithras in Persian dress kneeling on the bull and plunging his dagger into its shoulder, accompanied by the dog, snake, scorpion and raven, with the Sun and Moon above. Statues of the twin torch-bearers Cautes and Cautopates frequently stood nearby. Other images show Mithras born from a rock, banqueting with the Sun god, or the Sun kneeling before him. Some mithraea contained a lion-headed figure entwined by a serpent, whose identity is unknown; it has been linked with Time or Eternity, a question discussed in Zurvanism.

Reliefs were sometimes designed to rotate or to be lit from behind, and some ceilings were painted with stars. The effect, in a small closed room lit by lamps, must have been striking, and several scholars have suggested that lighting effects formed part of the ritual.

Great Mithraea from Ostia to Hadrian's Wall§

The cult flourished from the late first to the late fourth century CE, especially in Rome and its port of Ostia, along the military frontiers of the Rhine and Danube, in Britain, and in the eastern provinces. It was rare in Greece and Egypt.

Ostia alone has yielded more than a dozen mithraea. The Mithraeum of the Seven Spheres has the signs of the zodiac and figures of the planets on its benches and seven arcs on its floor representing the planetary spheres, and the Mithraeum of Felicissimus has a floor mosaic showing the symbols of the seven grades in a sequence of panels leading towards the cult image. In Rome, the mithraeum beneath the church of Santa Prisca on the Aventine preserves wall paintings of a procession of initiates of different grades and fragments of painted verses, while the sanctuary under the basilica of San Clemente remains one of the best-known underground mithraea. At Santa Maria Capua Vetere near Naples, painted panels show scenes of initiation, with a naked, kneeling candidate accompanied by a guide and a priest; at Marino in the Alban Hills a vivid fresco of the tauroctony was discovered in 1962.

On the eastern frontier, the mithraeum of Dura-Europos in Syria, excavated in the 1930s and reconstructed at Yale University, was decorated with paintings that include two seated figures in Iranian dress. In Britain, the London Mithraeum on the Walbrook, found during building work in 1954, yielded a marble head of Mithras and other sculptures, and the small sanctuary at Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall preserves three altars dedicated by commanders of the local garrison. These sites show how the cult travelled with soldiers, officials and traders. Its place among the many religions of the empire is described in Roman religion.

The Seven Grades of Initiation§

The clearest list of the Mithraic grades comes from St Jerome. In a letter written around 400 he recalled how a prefect of Rome had destroyed a Mithraic cave and its images, naming the grades: Raven (Corax), Bridegroom (Nymphus), Soldier (Miles), Lion (Leo), Persian (Perses), Sun-runner (Heliodromus) and Father (Pater). The Felicissimus mosaic at Ostia and the Santa Prisca paintings confirm the sequence and associate each grade with a planet: Raven with Mercury, Bridegroom with Venus, Soldier with Mars, Lion with Jupiter, Persian with the Moon, Sun-runner with the Sun, and Father with Saturn. The pattern draws on the planetary order of ancient astrology, described in astrology: a complete guide.

Each grade had its own emblems. The mosaic shows, for example, a cup and caduceus for the Raven, a lamp and diadem for the Bridegroom, a helmet and spear for the Soldier, a fire-shovel and sistrum for the Lion, a sickle for the Persian, a whip and radiate crown for the Sun-runner, and a Phrygian cap, staff and sickle for the Father. Porphyry reports that honey rather than water was poured on the hands of the Lions to purify them, since water was hostile to fire, the Lions' element. The Father presided over each community, and inscriptions record "fathers of fathers" with authority over several groups.

It is not certain that every member passed through every grade, or that all communities used the full system. Many scholars think most members remained in the lower grades, and some argue that the list reflects an ideal more consistently applied in some places, such as Ostia and Rome, than in others.

Ordeals, Masks and the Sacred Meal§

Because Mithraists kept their rites secret, our knowledge of initiation comes from images and from hostile Christian writers. The North African theologian Tertullian, around 200, says that a candidate for the grade of Soldier was offered a crown on the point of a sword and had to push it away, declaring that Mithras alone was his crown, and that Mithras "signed" his soldiers on the forehead and celebrated an offering of bread. A late fourth-century Christian text attributed to Ambrosiaster describes initiates blindfolded, some flapping their arms and croaking like ravens, others roaring like lions, and candidates with their hands bound being led over a pit of water until someone cut the bonds and called himself their liberator. The Capua paintings and a decorated cult vessel from Mainz, which shows a Father aiming a bow at an initiate, seem to depict comparable scenes of symbolic threat and rescue.

The common meal was the heart of community life. Reliefs show Mithras and the Sun feasting on the hide of the slain bull, served by attendants, and a relief from Konjic in Bosnia shows worshippers wearing raven and lion masks at the banquet. Christian apologists such as Justin Martyr, in the mid-second century, noted that bread and a cup of water were set out with certain formulas at Mithraic initiations and claimed that demons had imitated the Eucharist. Archaeology confirms feasting: pits outside a mithraeum at Tienen in Belgium contained large quantities of chicken bones and pottery from what appears to have been a major celebration.

How far these ordeals were frightening or merely theatrical is debated. Most scholars now see them as carefully staged symbolic experiences of death and rebirth, mirroring the journey of the soul through the planetary spheres, a theme also found in the ascent ritual discussed in the Mithras Liturgy.

The End of the Mithraea and Their Rediscovery§

The cult declined in the fourth century as Christianity gained imperial favour. Many mithraea were abandoned, and some show signs of deliberate destruction, their reliefs smashed or buried; the laws of Theodosius I in 391–392 forbidding pagan sacrifice and worship effectively ended public cult. Several sanctuaries, such as those under Santa Prisca and San Clemente, later lay beneath churches.

Systematic study began with Franz Cumont, whose collection of the texts and monuments appeared in 1894–1900, and continued with Maarten Vermaseren's corpus of inscriptions and monuments in the 1950s. New mithraea are still discovered — in recent decades in Germany, Spain, Hungary and elsewhere — and the London Mithraeum, moved after its discovery, was returned close to its original site and position in a new museum display in 2017. Each find adds detail to a religion whose members wrote down almost nothing of their beliefs. Comparisons with other ancient mystery cults are drawn in Greek religion and the mysteries.

Frequently asked questions§

What was a mithraeum used for?§

A mithraeum was the meeting place of a Mithraic community. Members gathered there for initiation rites and for shared ritual meals, reclining on benches before the image of Mithras slaying the bull.

What were the seven grades of Mithraism?§

They were Raven, Bridegroom, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Sun-runner and Father, each associated with a planet. They are known from a letter of St Jerome and from a mosaic and paintings at Ostia and Rome.

Can you visit a mithraeum today?§

Yes. Several are open to visitors, including mithraea at Ostia Antica, the sanctuary beneath San Clemente in Rome, the reconstructed London Mithraeum and the site at Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall. Access arrangements vary from site to site.

Were women allowed in the mithraeum?§

No woman is attested as an initiate of Mithras, and the cult appears to have been for men only. Women may have taken part in some other activities, but there is no clear evidence of this.

Sources and further reading§