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The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World
In the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great the dramatic unification of the Mediterranean world created exceptionally fertile soil for the growth of new religions. Christianity, for example, was one of the innovative religious movements that arose during this time. However, Christianity had many competitors, and one of the most remarkable of these was the ancient Roman "mystery religion" of Mithraism.
Like the other "mystery cults" of antiquity, Mithraism kept its beliefs strictly secret, revealing them only to initiates. As a result, the cult's teachings were never written down. However, the Mithraists filled their temples with an enigmatic iconography, an abundance of which has been unearthed by archaeologists. Until now, all attempts to decipher this iconography have proven fruitless. Most experts have been content with a vague hypothesis that the iconography somehow derived from ancient Iranian religion.
In this groundbreaking work, David Ulansey offers a radically different theory. He argues that Mithraic iconography was actually an astronomical code , and that the cult began as a religious response to a startling scientific discovery. As his investigation proceeds, Ulansey penetrates step by step the mysteries concealed in Mithraic iconography, until finally he is able to reveal the central secret of the cult: a secret consisting of an ancient vision of the ultimate nature of the universe.
Brimming with the excitement of discovery—and reading like an intellectual detective story—Ulansey's compelling book will intrigue scholars and general readers alike.
Like the other "mystery cults" of antiquity, Mithraism kept its beliefs strictly secret, revealing them only to initiates. As a result, the cult's teachings were never written down. However, the Mithraists filled their temples with an enigmatic iconography, an abundance of which has been unearthed by archaeologists. Until now, all attempts to decipher this iconography have proven fruitless. Most experts have been content with a vague hypothesis that the iconography somehow derived from ancient Iranian religion.
In this groundbreaking work, David Ulansey offers a radically different theory. He argues that Mithraic iconography was actually an astronomical code , and that the cult began as a religious response to a startling scientific discovery. As his investigation proceeds, Ulansey penetrates step by step the mysteries concealed in Mithraic iconography, until finally he is able to reveal the central secret of the cult: a secret consisting of an ancient vision of the ultimate nature of the universe.
Brimming with the excitement of discovery—and reading like an intellectual detective story—Ulansey's compelling book will intrigue scholars and general readers alike.
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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March 21, 2018Ouch.
I seized this book with excitement. I knew about Mithras, the god worshipped largely in military contexts in Roman Empire who has an Indo-Iranian name, from that childhood spent among the stories of Rosemary Sutcliff. His worship was conducted in subterranean temples, restricted apparently to men, seems to have been a cult with levels of initiation, that we know only really through the iconography of those temple sites.
The opening chapter points out how understanding of Mithras was dominated by the work of Franz Cumont in the 1890s. His assumption was that the cult had transferred from ancient Persia over into Greek territories, and so we could understand the iconography of the Mithraic temples from Persian myth. So far so reasonable. Unfortunately the imagery does not marry. For example dogs and snakes would be opposed in a Persian setting as respectively agents of good and evil, while in the Roman temples they can appear side by side, happily getting on with their own business.
Since the 1970s the scholarship according to Ulansey has shifted, one set of views favours a reversal to Stark's views from the 1860s that the iconography in Mithraic temples represented stars and constellations. All of this was entertaining enough - the tides of scholarship washing back and forth over the evidence in gravelly tomes.
Thereafter for me everything went downhill. There was chapter after chapter built up out of could have beens, might haves, probablys, it is possible to concludes, combined with what looked to me to be some misleading interpretations of evidence such as implying that everybody believed that the Earth was the centre of the solar system, this wasn't a major point in Ulansey's argument, but I'm fairly certain that this was one idea, championed by Ptolemy , but not the only one to be found in the ancient world.
Anyway the end result of which is to assert that the Stoics, the Pirates of the eastern Mediterranean, King Mithridates of Pontus, and the legend of the hero Persus come together in creating the cult of Mithra. It comes across like something out of Foucault's Pendulum . That's not to say Ulansey is wrong, his argument may be correct in part or completely, it just feels cheesey. Rather like his repeating Ernest Renan's view "if Christianity had been stopped at its birth by some mortal illness, the world would have become Mithraic" (p4) - I recall Rebecca West pointing out in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon that a religion that apparently excluded half the population is going to have some difficulties in achieving that ambition- it suggests that Ulansey has lost sight of the essentials.
And in fact he concludes: I have argued that Mithraic iconography was a cosmological code created by a circle of religious-minded philosophers and scientists to symbolise their possession of secret knowledge...of course before long Mithraism evolved and spread far beyond the beginnings I have reconstructed here (p125), at which point we can freely sling the book onto the nearest compost pile because the argument began with the evidence of the iconography of Mithraic temples in the Roman empire. If we accept that ideas and faiths evolve and change, then we have no basis to dismiss Cumont's ideas - Mithraism may well have been Iranian in origin and if after several centuries of evolution the imagery employed in temples in the Roman Empire doesn't harmonise with its Persian origins we have no reason to be surprised - it is simply that the faith evolved over time. Equally the iconography of Mithraic temples in the Roman empire might or might not give us clues about its origin, and Ulansey's work is one more theory but which is held to such as evidence as there is by a skein only of maybes and it is possible to concludes.
I seized this book with excitement. I knew about Mithras, the god worshipped largely in military contexts in Roman Empire who has an Indo-Iranian name, from that childhood spent among the stories of Rosemary Sutcliff. His worship was conducted in subterranean temples, restricted apparently to men, seems to have been a cult with levels of initiation, that we know only really through the iconography of those temple sites.
The opening chapter points out how understanding of Mithras was dominated by the work of Franz Cumont in the 1890s. His assumption was that the cult had transferred from ancient Persia over into Greek territories, and so we could understand the iconography of the Mithraic temples from Persian myth. So far so reasonable. Unfortunately the imagery does not marry. For example dogs and snakes would be opposed in a Persian setting as respectively agents of good and evil, while in the Roman temples they can appear side by side, happily getting on with their own business.
Since the 1970s the scholarship according to Ulansey has shifted, one set of views favours a reversal to Stark's views from the 1860s that the iconography in Mithraic temples represented stars and constellations. All of this was entertaining enough - the tides of scholarship washing back and forth over the evidence in gravelly tomes.
Thereafter for me everything went downhill. There was chapter after chapter built up out of could have beens, might haves, probablys, it is possible to concludes, combined with what looked to me to be some misleading interpretations of evidence such as implying that everybody believed that the Earth was the centre of the solar system, this wasn't a major point in Ulansey's argument, but I'm fairly certain that this was one idea, championed by Ptolemy , but not the only one to be found in the ancient world.
Anyway the end result of which is to assert that the Stoics, the Pirates of the eastern Mediterranean, King Mithridates of Pontus, and the legend of the hero Persus come together in creating the cult of Mithra. It comes across like something out of Foucault's Pendulum . That's not to say Ulansey is wrong, his argument may be correct in part or completely, it just feels cheesey. Rather like his repeating Ernest Renan's view "if Christianity had been stopped at its birth by some mortal illness, the world would have become Mithraic" (p4) - I recall Rebecca West pointing out in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon that a religion that apparently excluded half the population is going to have some difficulties in achieving that ambition- it suggests that Ulansey has lost sight of the essentials.
And in fact he concludes: I have argued that Mithraic iconography was a cosmological code created by a circle of religious-minded philosophers and scientists to symbolise their possession of secret knowledge...of course before long Mithraism evolved and spread far beyond the beginnings I have reconstructed here (p125), at which point we can freely sling the book onto the nearest compost pile because the argument began with the evidence of the iconography of Mithraic temples in the Roman empire. If we accept that ideas and faiths evolve and change, then we have no basis to dismiss Cumont's ideas - Mithraism may well have been Iranian in origin and if after several centuries of evolution the imagery employed in temples in the Roman Empire doesn't harmonise with its Persian origins we have no reason to be surprised - it is simply that the faith evolved over time. Equally the iconography of Mithraic temples in the Roman empire might or might not give us clues about its origin, and Ulansey's work is one more theory but which is held to such as evidence as there is by a skein only of maybes and it is possible to concludes.
February 25, 2016
deliberately and unnecessarily abstruse, full of pure conjecture posing as fact. Avoid
November 30, 2015
I really enjoyed this book a lot and it was my introduction into the mysteries of this popular Roman cult. The cult of Mithras had its origins in the Eastern god, Mithra who was just a secondary figure to more important gods. During the expensive wars tha the Romans fought in the middle East, some of the nobles emigrated to Rome and they brought their beliefs with them. We've heard this tale before, but nobody expected that this one god would have caused such an impact. And it was something very normal, to have somebody assimilate into the dominant cultures and acquire their values, while in turn the Romans found some aspects of these immigrant cultures attractives and added it to their own system of beliefs. We look at what happened with Christianity. By the second century CE (Common Era), the figures of Christ and his disciples are shown wearing Roman garb and burial sites show these depictions which look awfully similar to Greco-Roman gods. Mithras went through great changes as well. He became the top god, and associated with Helios who was the sun, and the levels of initiation were represented by constellation, planets and other celestial bodies. However, because it was such an exclusive cult, there was a lot of secrecy surrounding it. And for me researching this for my Jr. Sr. seminar class was a pain in the neck because so little contemporary sources mention it. It did spread, not just in Rome but in its provinces, reaching even Britain.
We know a lot about it thanks to archaeology. And David Ulansey makes a great case point against his predecessors who contributed a lot to this field, that the sacrifices depicted in frescos and in remnants of these temples might have been nothing more than allegories. Much like Christianity today with symbolically representing the body of Christ (in the case of the Catholic Mass) in the bread; the bull sacrifice might have just been a metaphor. You had to prove yourself to the gods, in this case to this mjajor god, and the best way to do this was by doing a personal sacrifice. And this didn't have to mean something literal, but it could be something as minimal as giving up certain material goods or making a special commitment.
Finally the book gives a brief explanation why this cult finally went deep underground and why Christianity was more successful. Part of this, he argues, is that Christianity in its beginnings (despite the many sects) wasn't exclusive and promised salvation to everyone. And secondly, as it began to spread, it started to borrow (to put it lightly) from its competitors, giving the pagans and undecided non-converts an incentive so they could convert.
The only thing that I found frustrating was that he spent a great chunk in the last parts of every chapter saying how he was right and every other historian that came before him was wrong. And I don't know about you but that just feels repetitive.
We know a lot about it thanks to archaeology. And David Ulansey makes a great case point against his predecessors who contributed a lot to this field, that the sacrifices depicted in frescos and in remnants of these temples might have been nothing more than allegories. Much like Christianity today with symbolically representing the body of Christ (in the case of the Catholic Mass) in the bread; the bull sacrifice might have just been a metaphor. You had to prove yourself to the gods, in this case to this mjajor god, and the best way to do this was by doing a personal sacrifice. And this didn't have to mean something literal, but it could be something as minimal as giving up certain material goods or making a special commitment.
Finally the book gives a brief explanation why this cult finally went deep underground and why Christianity was more successful. Part of this, he argues, is that Christianity in its beginnings (despite the many sects) wasn't exclusive and promised salvation to everyone. And secondly, as it began to spread, it started to borrow (to put it lightly) from its competitors, giving the pagans and undecided non-converts an incentive so they could convert.
The only thing that I found frustrating was that he spent a great chunk in the last parts of every chapter saying how he was right and every other historian that came before him was wrong. And I don't know about you but that just feels repetitive.
December 11, 2015
One expects a lot more from a book with such a title. What it actually was, in fact, was a defense of the author's idea of the origin of the Mithras cult in the Roman Empire. The idea itself is fascinating, but one expects more than such a slim volume in order to explore it. Most of the defense consists of the repetition of the phrase "one can easily imagine", making one wonder if the theory is valid, or merely the imagination of the author.
August 27, 2017
The author wants us to know that he has a theory about the origins of the Mythra cult.
The arguments are plausible, but weakly supported.
For the amount of information conveyed, anyway, the book is too verbose and could have been slimmer and dryer.
Ok if you want to know some of the interpretations of the mythraic symbols.
The arguments are plausible, but weakly supported.
For the amount of information conveyed, anyway, the book is too verbose and could have been slimmer and dryer.
Ok if you want to know some of the interpretations of the mythraic symbols.
July 21, 2021
Exploring some insights about the origin and dynamics of the Mithras cult, this essay delves into the Ancient Roman religion of salvation and cosmology... but, it's too short in its exploration...
August 6, 2022
I am not sure whether David has not done his homework, and he does not know much about Persian history and Persian Mithra, or he is just very biassed toward Persian culture.
First, if he has not seen any Persian Mithra temple as he claims that it does not exist, I encourage him to look at one of the Mithra’s temple from Parthian empire from 247 BC to 224 AD) in Iran.
https://www.visitiran.ir/attraction/m...
Does not it the temple look like Roman’s in the cave and temple?
Romans and Persian were at war between 54 BC-626 AD and often the cultures were exchanged by either captured soldiers or the territories that were occupied back and forth between Romans and Persians. One of the territories was Armenia that was part of the Persian empire for many centuries.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman...
In the Persian kingdom, some of the dynasties followed Zarathustra and sometimes Mithra. Parthians at the time of development of Mithras in Rome were Mithra worshipers than the next dynasty after them (Sassanian empire) who were very orthodox Zorastrians. However, Romans adapted the ancient Persian Mithra worshipping pre-Zarathustra rather than more moderate Zorastrian ones. Some of the concepts and symbols of Zoroastrianism that were adapted by parthians also came to Roman’s.
Second, Mithra was practised over thousands of years in Persia and by indo-Europeans before Zarathustra (the Persian prophet 5000 years ago). Zarathustra was a priest in Mithra temple as his father. He came from a Mithra priesthood family who served Mithra and other deities.
One of the practices in Mithra that Zarathustra was also conducting at his time of priesthood was sacrificing animals to Mithra. Bulls were considered as the most sacred animals for indo-Iranians (Aryan’s) and by Vedic people (India). Still to date in India, bulls are considered as sacred animals. That is why they don’t kill the bull in India.
The bull as a sacred God was sacrificed for Mithra (the ultimate God) in Persian Mithra temples. The reason people were sacrificing the bull was for Mithra to forgive their sins. The same concept came to Christianity as Jesus being the lamb of God. He sacrificed his life and his blood for the sins of humanity.
After Zarathustra renounced the deities worship and brought the first monastic religion to only one God (Ahura Mazda), he forbade the animal sacrifices. That is why the bull sacrifice began to be prohibited in ancient Persia under Zorastrian empires and religion.
However, some of the Mithra worshipers who did not follow Zarathustra still sacrificed bulls. Due to their persecution of Mithra worshipers by some Persian dynasties(specially Sassanian), some of the practices were conducted in secret. For instance, during the Sassanian empire, many of the Mithra’s temples were destroyed and his followers were persecuted. The remains of mithra’s temples were distorted after the invasion of Arabs and Muslims in late 6 century AD. Or, mosques were built over them. The lack of Mithra temples in Persia is not due to lack of temples, but due to destruction of all temples for over many years in Persia similar to Mithras’s temples in Rome by Christians. Therefore, many of the ancient Persian Mithra worshipers had to practice in the cave and in secret.
Zarathustra also as a respect to the ancient Persian religion, adapted both Mithra and Anahita practice and philosophy to his religion.
Mithra in Persia began to reformed to a more Zorastrian in Persia. Mithra was always presented as the sun with sun rays around his head and had a symbol of the sun as Roman’s Mithras does. Anahita, the goddess of fertility and the mother of Mithra was shown as a moon symbol. In Zorastrian arts Mithra is always in the right hand of a king (sun) and Anahita is a symbol of the moon in the left side. One can see the same in Roman’s Mithras god sun is in the right hand and Anahita the moon in the left hand. It is a yin and Yang in Zarathustra’s view.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/32425924...
Similar to bull, dogs were also very sacred in ancient Persia. Killing a dog was considered a capital punishment in ancient Persia. That is why the dog in the Roman temple is near to Mithras as another sacred animal.
The Zorastrian symbol is a man with two wings like an eagle. Because eagles fly very high and they look everything from the above, eagle is also another sacred animal and a messenger from Ahura Mazda or Mithra to human (Faravashi). Romans changed the eagle to a raven as a messenger of God to human.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.histo...
Snakes and scorpions were considered as evil animals that came also to Roman’s when they began to be introduced by Parthians beginning in 54 BC when the wars began between Partgians and Romans. One can see in Avesta (Zorastrian sacred book) that both snake and scorpion are considered as Ahriman (Satan) animals. So, the scorpion and snake in Roman’s art are the symbol of evil in the battle of Mithras. The scorpion in the Roman’s Mithras biting the testicular of the bull is to prevent Mithras from spreading the bull’s sperm into the universe (a demonic interference). Just a reminder that the Romans art of Mithras killing the bull is the story of creation from Mithraism perspective. It is like it is their book of genesis. It shows the story of creation when Mithras kills the sacred bull and spreads his sperms into the universe.
In Zorastrian symbol (Faravashi), he has two upper wings lifting him upwards (god) and a lower feather that bring him downward toward evil (Ahriman). So, one needs to be aware of the higher wings than lower one. The same concept is a torch aiming up (God, Mithras) and another torch aiming down (evil) in Roman’s Mithra.
Similar to Roman’s Mithras that was borrowed from Persian is a symbol of sun with sun rays around his head and they are very identical:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra
https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images...
https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images...
The seven stars above Mithras is the seven attributes of Ahura Mazda as we talked about, seven angles or rays of Ahura Mazda and attributes same as Mithra. That is why there are seven stars and seven rays of flame around Mithra's head. Romans also began to know more about the
It is true that Roman Mithras is not 100% like Persian’s because they also adapted to their own culture and beliefs. If one looks at Jesus' picture in Ethiopia and Africa, he is very skinny and he is black. In western culture, he has blue eyes, blond hair, and he is white. Jesus in the Middle East is very Middle Eastern like Jesus looked like. Can we argue that because the pictures of Jesus are different, they all have their own Jesus.
The matter can be discussed much further, but it is enough for now. We can remove history and fabricat, but for how long?
May the wisdom of Ahura Mazda be upon all of us.
www.Zarathustra.ca
Sepas (thanks)
September 21, 2011
I like the central theme which put a theory about a connection between Mithras, Perseus, and the cosmos in connection with the ancient world. However, the writing and organization of this book is just off. I really got tired of getting excited about something just to have Ulansey say "but we will return to this later in the book." He did that at least fifteen times. Other than that though, it was a really cool book.
July 9, 2017
I discovered this cited on the Wikipedia page on Mithraism. Wikipedia unfortunately left out the part that Ulansey is indulging in crackpot, almost conspiracist historical speculation that only just stops short of "It was aliens!"
But on the bright side, it is informative when it's not being out and out speculative (and sometimes even when it is), and now I want to find a more sober book about Mithraism.
But on the bright side, it is informative when it's not being out and out speculative (and sometimes even when it is), and now I want to find a more sober book about Mithraism.
September 9, 2023
Superb (brief and concise) account of the spiritual mentalities of the ancient mediterranean. Ulansey, diving deep in the astrological beliefs of middle east and anatolia, point us in the right direction towards the comprehension of Mithra's secret creed. Even if the arguments are not conclusive, this essay provides a good lesson about the multifactorial issues to bear in mind when analyzing mentalities of the past.
If you are interested in the way Ulansey reconstruct the ancient''s religious mindset, I recommend you "El círculo de la sabiduría" de Ignacio Gómez de Liaño (still not translated). [Gómez de Liaño critizes some of Ulansey points]
P. D.: I am not able to understand why there are some people who doesn't grasp Ulansey's points (which, of course, sometimes are grounded on especulation: most of ancient history, theology and philosophy's reconstructions are grounded on reasonable speculation!!) . I've read some of the critic reviews and I've found misundertandings and incomprehension everywhere. I guess that some readers, used just to read "positivist history, and forgetting trends such as anthropological history or history of mentalities have some difficulties to deal with transversality and multidisciplinarity. Addressing the spiritual mentalities of the past is not an easy issue, less when astrology is included in the matter. At least, these critics could acknowledge the amount of ancient' stoic and astrological wisdom deployed by Ulansey.
If you are interested in the way Ulansey reconstruct the ancient''s religious mindset, I recommend you "El círculo de la sabiduría" de Ignacio Gómez de Liaño (still not translated). [Gómez de Liaño critizes some of Ulansey points]
P. D.: I am not able to understand why there are some people who doesn't grasp Ulansey's points (which, of course, sometimes are grounded on especulation: most of ancient history, theology and philosophy's reconstructions are grounded on reasonable speculation!!) . I've read some of the critic reviews and I've found misundertandings and incomprehension everywhere. I guess that some readers, used just to read "positivist history, and forgetting trends such as anthropological history or history of mentalities have some difficulties to deal with transversality and multidisciplinarity. Addressing the spiritual mentalities of the past is not an easy issue, less when astrology is included in the matter. At least, these critics could acknowledge the amount of ancient' stoic and astrological wisdom deployed by Ulansey.
December 20, 2025
This slim but dense volume makes an almost-but-not-entirely convincing case, aganst the previous orthodox view, "that Mithraic iconography was a cosmological code created by a circle of religious-minded philosophers and scientists to symbolize their porssession of a secret knowledge," specifically, the precession of the Vernal Equinox from the astrological Zodiac sign of Taurus the Bull to Ares the Ram. This they posited as "the knowledge of a newly discovered god so powerful that the entire cosmos was completely under his control." And this god, Mithras, was essentially a reinterpretation of Perseus (cf. Persia) as worshipped by his cult at Tarsus (cf. Taurus).
One can see how such a mystery cult might become popular with, say, Roman centurions as the religious aspects come to the fore over time, and the ceremonial communication of the underlying secrets begets a hierarchy of power as the underlying scientific "secrets" become obscured, forgotten, or ignored, rather as happened to Freemasonry over the course of centuries (i.e., losing any sense of practical masonic stone-work).
The thesis is entirely plausible, and supported by extensive archeological evidence (illustrated in black and white in this edition) and logic, but it does stop a step or two short of actual proof.
One can see how such a mystery cult might become popular with, say, Roman centurions as the religious aspects come to the fore over time, and the ceremonial communication of the underlying secrets begets a hierarchy of power as the underlying scientific "secrets" become obscured, forgotten, or ignored, rather as happened to Freemasonry over the course of centuries (i.e., losing any sense of practical masonic stone-work).
The thesis is entirely plausible, and supported by extensive archeological evidence (illustrated in black and white in this edition) and logic, but it does stop a step or two short of actual proof.
October 29, 2022
This scholarly study of the mystery religion of Mithraism is short and accessible. It explains clearly what Mithraism was (a mystery religion that spread throughout the Roman Empire in the early centuries A.D.), and then lays out the author's thesis in terms a lay person can understand. (The thesis is that Mithraism started as a way to encode the knowledge the zodiacal constellations precess, or move backwards slowly over millennia.) The book includes many black and white images, both photos and line drawings, showing the Mithraic iconography to which the author refers. Based on my limited knowledge of ancient science and mythology, I find the argument convincing. I enjoyed this book and will keep it on my shelves as a reference.
This book will appeal to fans of Graham Hancock and of anyone who likes reading fiction and nonfiction about the ancient Greco-Roman world. It should also prove handy for New Testament scholars.
This book will appeal to fans of Graham Hancock and of anyone who likes reading fiction and nonfiction about the ancient Greco-Roman world. It should also prove handy for New Testament scholars.
November 27, 2023
از آنجایی که برای فهم میتراپرستی دانستن نجوم خیلی واجب و ضروریست این کتاب هم پر از توضیحات و استدلالهای مبتنی بر نجوم است و برای کسی که نجوم نمیداند شاید خواندن و فهمیدنش دشوار باشد، اما این عیب کتاب نیست. نجوم دانستن از پیشنیازهای موضوع است و باید آن را فراهم کرد.
کتاب خیلی خوب جریان تحقیقات مربوط به میتراپرستی را توضیح میدهد. از کومن شروع میکند تا میرسد به ورمازن و ۱۹۷۱ که بزنگاه مهم تحقیقات میتراییست و دربارهٔ آرای محققان جدیدتر مثل هینلز و گوردون و اینسلر و بک توضیح میدهد و اِشکالهای استدلالهایشان را میگوید. بسیار خواندنی و عالی.
کتاب خیلی خوب جریان تحقیقات مربوط به میتراپرستی را توضیح میدهد. از کومن شروع میکند تا میرسد به ورمازن و ۱۹۷۱ که بزنگاه مهم تحقیقات میتراییست و دربارهٔ آرای محققان جدیدتر مثل هینلز و گوردون و اینسلر و بک توضیح میدهد و اِشکالهای استدلالهایشان را میگوید. بسیار خواندنی و عالی.
July 17, 2024
Re-read this for the first time in ±30 years. Ulansey was one of the most engaging lecturers I had in college. I have no idea what degree of acceptance his ideas on this topic have achieved in the field—they were new back then—but they’re still fun to read, today! I’m heading to Rome this Fall and hope to visit a Mithraeum or two.
April 30, 2022
È la mia prima lettura sull'argomento e l'ho trovato chiaro ma preciso. Non so dare valutazioni sulla profondità e solidità delle tesi esposte, eppure credo possa essere ottimo per chi si avvicina per la prima volta a questi studi.
May 13, 2017
brief, rigorous in it's domain and an entertaining tale, but suffers from a limitation of 'western only' verifiable/citable rigor.
Read
November 30, 2019Read for REL 237: Gnostic Christianity
January 16, 2024
Love love love
January 20, 2024
Bu tür konuların meraklılarına öneririm.
"Stoacılar, astroloji ile yakın ilgilerinin yanısıra, uzayın canlı ve kutsal bir varlık olduğu inancını taşıyan astral bir öğreti sahibiydiler." sf 97
"Stoacılar, astroloji ile yakın ilgilerinin yanısıra, uzayın canlı ve kutsal bir varlık olduğu inancını taşıyan astral bir öğreti sahibiydiler." sf 97
April 27, 2012
Mithraism was a mystery religion. In the Roman world the cults collectively labelled "mystery religions" had one thing in common and that was the belief that knowledge derived from the gods represented power, usually the power to gain everlasting life. This book is a great piece of detective work which shows how scholars pieced together the core beliefs of Mithraism from its archaeological remains. Mithraism originated out of the discovery by the great Greek astronomer Hipparchus around 128 BC that the earth wobbles around its axis of rotation in a process known as precession (in the same way a spinning top wobbles). It completes a cycle once every 25,920 years.
In the world view of the time precession meant that the sphere of the stars, the 7th sphere or the 7th heaven (lower spheres were the sun, moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) moved whereas previously it was thought to be immovable. Because all motion at the time was thought to be accomplished by some god or spirit (each sphere represented a god) the discovery of the motion of the star sphere thus meant that some new god existed, one previously unknown and more powerful than all the others. This god came to be identified with the Persian (Zoroastrian) god Mithra, the god of contracts and justice, the all seeing eye of truth, the guardian of cattle and harvest. Mithra was often depicted as a bull slayer and this religion was popular among the Roman soldiers.
The Roman historian Plutarch mentions Mithraism for the first time as existing is 67 BC in his "Lives of the Roman Emperors" as a religion being practiced by a short lived pirate empire in the province of Cilicia when the Roman general Pompey began a campaign against them. Interestingly the city of Tarsus was the capital of Cilicia, located in southeastern Asia Minor, and this is the same city where the Apostle Paul grew up 70 years later so he must have been very aware of Mithraism.
In the world view of the time precession meant that the sphere of the stars, the 7th sphere or the 7th heaven (lower spheres were the sun, moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) moved whereas previously it was thought to be immovable. Because all motion at the time was thought to be accomplished by some god or spirit (each sphere represented a god) the discovery of the motion of the star sphere thus meant that some new god existed, one previously unknown and more powerful than all the others. This god came to be identified with the Persian (Zoroastrian) god Mithra, the god of contracts and justice, the all seeing eye of truth, the guardian of cattle and harvest. Mithra was often depicted as a bull slayer and this religion was popular among the Roman soldiers.
The Roman historian Plutarch mentions Mithraism for the first time as existing is 67 BC in his "Lives of the Roman Emperors" as a religion being practiced by a short lived pirate empire in the province of Cilicia when the Roman general Pompey began a campaign against them. Interestingly the city of Tarsus was the capital of Cilicia, located in southeastern Asia Minor, and this is the same city where the Apostle Paul grew up 70 years later so he must have been very aware of Mithraism.
August 12, 2007
This is a fascinating analysis that connects the iconography of Mithraism with an astounding astronomical discovery made by Greeks in the late 2nd century B.C.E.
If there is a genre called detective scholarship, this would be one of its definitive works. There's a puzzle, and an answer, but the answer doesn't quite fit. And there are very few written historical source, the whole point of a mystery cult being secrecy. But Ulansey finds an amazing little key that fits perfectly.
As interesting as the subject itself is the light that it sheds, by analogy, on Christianity's contemporaneous metamorphosis from a tiny Judean apocalyptic cult into a thriving Greek religion. For example, in order to show that his key has contextual credibility, Ulansey describes what the well-educated, pre-Christian Greek of the period would have believed about the divine and the afterlife. It was remarkable to me how much overlap those beliefs have with orthodox Christianity. This book made me realize that our culture isn't Judeo-Christian, it's Greco-Judaic.
If there is a genre called detective scholarship, this would be one of its definitive works. There's a puzzle, and an answer, but the answer doesn't quite fit. And there are very few written historical source, the whole point of a mystery cult being secrecy. But Ulansey finds an amazing little key that fits perfectly.
As interesting as the subject itself is the light that it sheds, by analogy, on Christianity's contemporaneous metamorphosis from a tiny Judean apocalyptic cult into a thriving Greek religion. For example, in order to show that his key has contextual credibility, Ulansey describes what the well-educated, pre-Christian Greek of the period would have believed about the divine and the afterlife. It was remarkable to me how much overlap those beliefs have with orthodox Christianity. This book made me realize that our culture isn't Judeo-Christian, it's Greco-Judaic.
March 27, 2010
This book is a fun and concise introduction to the controversy surrounding the Mithraic Mysteries. David Ulansey writes with an eye to the story - both of the intrigues among modern scholars and the ancient disputes about the cult. He makes a convincing argument that the unifying mythological tauroctony scene of Mithras slaying the bull represents a star map from a previous procession of the equinoxes. From that theoretic point, he makes a number of interesting abductions about possible origins of the cult and further cosmic symbolism.
February 12, 2013
Hang in there while reading this one. A solid primer on Mithraism from Oxford Press, and probably a "4" as such, especially for the reader [ moi] who knows little or nothing about this cult prior to absorbing this book. In style, the text is a bit turgid compared with other nonfiction titles on equally arcane subjects.
July 21, 2009
David Ulansey was my teacher and this book takes a very interesting look at a religion that rivaled Christianity. Ulansey attempts to uncover secrets that this religion only told to its members.
October 25, 2012
bu kitabı okumak isteyenlerin öncelikle yunan mitolojisi ve astroloji ile ilgili bilgi edinmelerini tavsiye ederim. aksi takdirde okurken sürekli başka kaynaklar araştırmanız gerekecek.
November 14, 2025
pretty solid
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