The other gods who appear on the Mithraic monuments are those known to us in classical mythology and are represented under the usual human forms made familiar by Greek and Roman art. By the side of, but in a subordinate position to Jupiter, we find, if M. Cumont be justified in his identifications, nearly all the “great gods” of the Greco-Roman pantheon. Five of these, that is to say, Jupiter himself, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury may be intended as symbols of the planets which, then as now, bore these names. But there are others such as Juno, Neptune and Amphitrite, Pluto and Proserpine, Apollo, Vulcan, and Hercules who cannot by any possibility be considered as planetary signs[[925]]. M. Cumont’s theory about these divinities is, if one understands him rightly, that these are really Persian or Avestic gods, such as Verethragna, represented under the classic forms of their Greek counterparts to make them attractive to their Roman worshippers[[926]]. This does not seem very probable, because the Persians did not figure their gods in human form[[927]]. Nor is there any reason to think that the Mithraists confined themselves to the theocrasia or the practice of discovering their own gods in the divinities of the peoples around them which we have seen so rife in Greece, Italy, and Egypt. But in the age when the worship of Mithras became popular in the Roman Empire, all paganism was groping its way towards a religion which should include and conciliate all others, and there is much evidence that the votaries of Mithras were especially determined that this religion should be their own. Isis, as we have seen, might proclaim herself as the one divinity whom under many names and in many forms the whole earth adored; but the Mithraists apparently went further and tried to show that their religion contained within itself all the rest. They appear to have first gained access to Rome under an alliance with the priests of Cybele, whose image, with its emasculated attendants the Galli, was transported from Pergamum to the Eternal City during the critical moments of the Second Punic War[[928]]. Externally there were many analogies between the two cults, and Cybele’s consort Attis, like Mithras, was always represented in a Phrygian cap and anaxyrides. One of the most impressive, if most disgusting practices in the religion of Cybele—the Taurobolium or blood-bath in which a bull was slaughtered over a pit covered with planks pierced with holes through which the blood of the victim dripped upon the naked votary below—was borrowed by the Mithraists, and many of them boast on their funereal inscriptions that they have undergone this ceremony and thereby, as they express it, have been “born again.” The clarissimi and high officials of the Empire who have left records of the kind are careful to note that they are worshippers of “the Great Mother” (Cybele) and Attis, as well as of Mithras[[929]], and a similar statement occurs so frequently on the funereal and other inscriptions of their wives as to lead to the hypothesis that the ceremonies of the Phrygian Goddess were the natural refuge of Mithras’ female votaries[[930]]. So, too, the worship of the Alexandrian divinities, which that of Mithras in some sort supplanted, and which, as being as popular in the Greek world as the last-named was in the Latin, might have been expected to be hostile to it, yet had relations with it not very easy to be understood. In the assembly of the gods which in some of the monuments crowns the arch set over the Tauroctony, the central place is in one instance taken by Sarapis with the distinctive modius on his head instead of Zeus or Jupiter[[931]], the same priest often describes himself as serving the altars of both gods, and “Zeus, Helios, Mithras, Sarapis, unconquered one!” is invoked in one of those spells in the Magic Papyri which contain fragments of ritual prayers or hymns[[932]]. Possibly it is for this reason, that the initiating priest in Apuleius’ story whom the grateful Lucius says he regards as his father, is named Mithras, as if the initiate had been led to the Mysteries of Isis through the worship of that god[[933]].
The same syncretistic tendency is particularly marked in the leaning of the Mithraists to the worship of the gods of Eleusis. “Consecrated to Liber [the Latin name of Dionysos] and the Eleusinian [goddesses],” “Mystes of Ceres,” “priest” or “Chief Herdsman (archibucolus) of the god Liber,” “hierophant of Father Liber and the Hecates,” “Consecrated at Eleusis to the god Bacchus, Ceres, and Cora” are some of the distinctions which the devotees of Mithras vaunt on their tombstones[[934]]; while we learn that when the last survivors of the two sacred families who had for centuries furnished priests to the Eleusinian Mysteries died out, the Athenians sent for a priest of Mithras from one of the neighbouring islands, and handed over to him the care of the sacred rites[[935]]. It is even possible that the complaisance of the Mithraists for other religions went further than has hitherto been suspected. Not only does Justin Martyr after describing the celebration of the Christian Eucharist say,
“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[[936]]”;
but we know from Porphyry that the initiate into the rites of Mithras underwent a baptism by total immersion which was said to expiate his sins[[937]]. Among the worshippers of Mithras, on the same authority, were also virgins and others vowed to continence[[938]], and we hear that the Mithraists used, like the Christians, to call each other “Brother” and address their priests as “Father[[939]].” St Augustine tells us that in his time the priests of Mithras were in the habit of saying, “That One in the Cap [i.e. Mithras] is a Christian too!” and it is not unlikely that the claim was seriously made[[940]]. During the reigns of the Second Flavian Emperors and before Constantine’s pact with the Church, we hear of hymns sung by the legionaries which could be chanted in common by Christians, Mithraists, and the worshippers of that Sun-God the adoration of whom was hereditary or traditional in the Flavian House[[941]]. The Mithraists also observed Sunday and kept sacred the 25th of December as the birthday of the sun[[942]].
Of the other rites and ceremonies used in the worship of Mithras we know next to nothing. As appears from the authors last quoted, the whole of the worship was conducted in “mysteries” or secret ceremonies like the Eleusinian and the rites of the Alexandrian divinities, although on a more extended scale. The Mithraic mysteries always took place in a subterranean vault or “cave,” lighted only by artificial light. The ruins of many of these have been found, and are generally so small as to be able to accommodate only a few worshippers[[943]], whence perhaps it followed that there were often several Mithraea in the same town or city[[944]]. The chief feature seems to have been always the scene of the Tauroctony or Bull-slaying which was displayed on the apse or further end of the chapel, and was generally carved in bas-relief although occasionally rendered in the round. The effect of this was sought to be heightened by brilliant colouring, perhaps made necessary by the dim light, and there were certainly altars of the square or triangular pedestal type, and a well or other source from which water could be obtained. The benches for the worshippers were of stone and ran at right angles to and on either side of the Tauroctony, so as to resemble the choir stalls in the chancel of a modern church[[945]]. We have seen that the lion-headed figure was concealed from the eyes of the worshippers, and we know that they used to kneel during at least part of the service, which was not in accord with the practice of either the Greeks or Romans, who were accustomed to stand with upturned palms when praying to the gods[[946]]. Sacrifices of animals which, if we may judge from the débris left in some of the chapels, were generally birds[[947]], seem to have been made; but there is no reason to believe the accusation sometimes brought against the Mithraists that they also slaughtered human victims in honour of their god. Lampridius tells us, on the other hand, that the Emperor Commodus on his initiation sullied the temple by converting a feigned into a real murder[[948]], and we hear from another and later source that in consequence of this only a bloody sword was shown to the candidate[[949]]. It seems therefore that somebody was supposed to suffer death during the ceremony, perhaps under the same circumstances as already suggested in the kindred case of the Alexandrian Mysteries[[950]].
We are a little better informed as to the degrees of initiation, which numbered seven. The initiate ascended from the degree of Crow (corax), which was the first or lowest, to that of Father (Pater), which was the seventh or highest, by passing successively through the intermediate degrees of Man of the Secret (Cryphius), Soldier (Miles), Lion (Leo), Persian (Perses), and Courier of the Sun (Heliodromus)[[951]]. It would seem that either he, or the initiating priests, or perhaps the other assistants, had to assume disguises consisting of masks corresponding to the animals named in the first and fourth of these degrees, and to make noises like the croaking of birds and the roaring of lions[[952]]. These rightly recall to M. Cumont the names of animals borne by initiates or priests in other religions in Greece and Asia Minor and may be referred to totemistic times. We also know from a chance allusion of Tertullian that on being admitted to the degree of soldier, the initiate was offered a crown or garland at the point of a sword, which he put away from him with the speech, “Mithras is my crown!”, and that never thereafter might he wear a garland even at a feast[[953]]. Porphyry, too, tells us that in the degree of Lion, the initiate’s hands and lips were purified with honey. It has also been said by the Fathers that before or during initiation, the candidate had to undergo certain trials or tortures, to swim rivers, plunge through fire, and to jump from apparently vast heights[[954]]; but it is evident from the small size of the Mithraea or chapels which have come down to us that these experiences would have demanded much more elaborate preparation than there was space for, and, if they were ever enacted, were probably as purely “make-believe” as the supposed murder just mentioned and some of the initiatory ceremonies in certain societies of the present day[[955]]. Lastly, there is no doubt that women were strictly excluded from all the ceremonies of the cult, thereby justifying in some sort the remark of Renan that Mithraism was a “Pagan Freemasonry[[956]].”
It has also been said that the true inwardness and faith of the religion of Mithras was in these mysteries only gradually and with great caution revealed to the initiates, whose fitness for them was tested at every step[[957]]. It may be so, but it is plain that the Mithraist was informed at the outset of at least a good many of the tenets of the faith. The whole Legend of Mithras, so far as we know it, must have been known to the initiate soon after entering the Mithraic chapel, since we have ourselves gathered it mainly from the different scenes depicted on the borders of the great central group of the Tauroctony. So, too, the mystic banquet or Mithraic Sacrament which, if the Heddernheim monuments stood alone, we might consider was concealed from the eyes of the lower initiates until the proper moment came, also forms one of the subsidiary scenes of the great altar piece in the chapels at Sarmizegetusa, Bononia and many other places[[958]]. In a bas-relief at Sarrebourg, moreover, the two principal persons at the banquet, i.e. Mithras and the Sun, are shown surrounded by other figures wearing the masks of crows and perhaps lions[[959]], which looks as if initiates of all grades were admitted to the sacramental banquet. One can therefore make no profitable conjecture as to what particular doctrines were taught in the particular degrees, though there seems much likelihood in M. Cumont’s statement that the initiates were thought to take rank in the next world according to the degree that they had received in this[[960]]. The belief that “those who have received humble mysteries shall have humble places and those that have received exalted mysteries exalted places” in the next world was, we may be sure, too profitable a one for the priests of Mithras to be neglected by them. It certainly explains the extraordinary order for the planetary spheres adopted by Origen[[961]], according to which the souls which had taken the lowest degree would go to the heaven of Saturn, slowest and most unlucky of the planets, while those perfected in the faith would enter the glorious house of the Sun.
Whether they were thought to go further still, we can only guess. It should be noticed that the mystic ladder of Mithras had eight steps, and we have seen that when the soul had climbed through the seven planetary spheres there was still before her the heaven of the fixed stars. The Sun seems in Origen’s account of the Mithraic faith to have formed the last world to be traversed before this highest heaven could be reached; and it was through the disk of the Sun that the ancients thought the gods descended to and reascended from the earth. This idea appears plainly in the Papyrus quoted above, where the Mithraist is represented as an eagle who flies upwards “and alone” to heaven and there beholds all things[[962]]. He prays that he may, in spite of his mortal and corruptible nature, behold with immortal eyes after having been hallowed with holy hallowings, “the deathless aeon, lord of the fiery crowns,” and that “the corruptible nature of mortals” which has been imposed upon him by “inexorable Necessity” may depart from him. “Then,” says the author of the fragment—which, it will be remembered, claims to be a revelation given by the archangel of the great Sun-God Mithras—the initiate “will see the gods who rule each day and hour ascending to heaven and others descending, and the path of the visible gods through the disk of the god my father will appear.” He describes the machinery of nature by which the winds are produced, which seems to be figured on some of the Mithraic monuments, and which reminds one of the physics supposed to be revealed in the Enochian literature. Then, after certain spells have been recited, the initiate sees the disk of the Sun, which opens, disclosing “doors of fire and the world of the gods within them.” Then follow more invocations to the gods of the seven planetary worlds who appear in due course, and presumably give him admission to their realms. After another invocation, in what may possibly be some Asianic or Anatolian language very much corrupted, the initiate beholds “a young god, beautiful, with fiery hair, in white tunic and purple mantle, and having on his head a crown of fire,” who seems to be Helios or Sol, the driver of the sun’s chariot on the Mithraic monuments. He is saluted as “Mighty in strength, mighty ruler, greatest king of gods! O Sun, lord of heaven and earth, God of Gods!” Next appear “seven virgins in linen robes having the heads of serpents,” who are called “the seven Fortunes of heaven” and are, as M. Georges Lafaye surmises, the seven stars of the constellation of the Great Bear[[963]]. They are followed by seven male gods also dressed in linen robes and with golden crowns, but equipped with the heads of black bulls, who are called “the rulers of the Pole.” These are they, we are told, who send upon the impious thunders and lightnings and earthquakes. And so we are led at last to the apparition of “a god of extraordinary stature, having a glance of fire, young and golden-haired, in white tunic and golden crown, clothed in anaxyrides, holding in his right hand the golden shoulder of a young bull.” This, i.e. the shoulder, we are told, is called “Arctos, who moves the sky, making it to turn forwards and backwards according to the hour.” But the god appears to be intended for Mithras, and the shoulder of the bull is probably an allusion to the bull-slaying scene which may serve to show that there were more interpretations than one placed upon the Tauroctony. The initiate hails this god as “Lord of water, consecrator of the earth, ruler of the air, shining-rayed One, of primeval rays!” and the like, and continues:
“O Lord, having been born again, I die! Having increased and again increasing, I come to an end by life-begotten birth, and coming into existence, and having been released unto death, I pursue my way, as thou hast ordered from the beginning, as thou hast ordained: And having accomplished the mystery, I am Pheroura miouri.”
Here the fragment abruptly breaks off, and plunges into directions for the manufacture of oracles and the other stuff common in Magic Papyri. One is not much inclined to believe with M. Cumont that the author of the galimatias knew nothing about Mithraism[[964]], and merely introduced Mithras’ name into his opening to impress his readers with a sense of the value of his recipes. It seems more likely that the writer of the fragment had really got hold of some part of a Mithraic ritual, which he had read without understanding it, and that he was trying to work more or less meaningless extracts from it into his spells on the same principle that the sorcerers of the European Renaissance used when they took similar liberties with the words of the Mass. If this view be adopted, it follows that the concluding words given above confirm the view that the Mithraists, like the Orphics before them, taught the metempsychosis or reincarnation of souls[[965]]. Did the Mithraist think that his soul, when released from this “dread necessity,” finally escaped from even the planetary spheres and, raising itself into the heaven of the fixed stars, became united with the Deity Himself? We can only ask the question without being able to suggest an answer supported by any evidence.