[164]. Mithra is frequently represented with a knife in one hand and a torch in the other. The knife as an instrument of sacrifice plays an important rôle in his myth.
[165]. Ibid.
[166]. Compare with this the scarlet mantle of Helios in the Mithra liturgy. It was a part of the rites of the various cults to be dressed in the bloody skins of the sacrificial animals, as in the Lupercalia, Dionysia and Saturnalia, the last of which has bequeathed to us the Carnival, the typical figure of which, in Rome, was the priapic Pulcinella.
[167]. Compare the linen-clad retinue of Helios. Also the bull-headed gods wear white περιζώματα (aprons).
[168]. The title of Mithra in Vendidad XIX, 28; cit. by Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” p. 37.
[169]. The development of the sun symbol in Faust does not go as far as an anthropomorphic vision. It stops in the suicide scene at the chariot of Helios (“A fiery chariot borne on buoyant pinions sweeps near me now”). The fiery chariot comes to receive the dying or departing hero, as in the ascension of Elijah or of Mithra. (Similarly Francis of Assisi.) In his flight Faust passes over the sea, just as does Mithra. The ancient Christian pictorial representations of the ascension of Elijah are partly founded upon the corresponding Mithraic representations. The horses of the sun-chariot rushing upwards to Heaven leave the solid earth behind, and pursue their course over a water god, Oceanus, lying at their feet. (Cumont: “Textes et Monuments.” Bruxelles 1899, I, p. 178.)
[170]. Compare my article, “Psych. und Path. sog. occ. Phän.”
[171]. Quoted from Pitra: “Analecta sacra,” cit. by Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” p. 355.
[172]. Helios, the rising sun—the only sun rising from heaven!
[173]. Cited from Usener: “Weihnachtsfest,” p. 5.