The Mysteries of Mithras
A Different Account
by Attilio Mastrocinque
Hardback (Published)
(August 2017)
ISBN: 9783161551123
6.57 x 9.13 inches
Price: $143.00
In stock
In this work, Attilio Mastrocinque cautions against an approach to Mithraism based on the belief that this mystic cult resembles Christianity. While both Christian and pagan authors testified that Mithraic elements were indeed borrowed, according to Attilio Mastrocinque this was only done by some gnostic Christians. He counters that Roman Empire ideology and religion provide better clues on how to approach the matter, contending too that Virgil proves to be more important than the Avesta in understanding Mithraic iconography. The meaning of the central scene – the Tauroctony – thus becomes clear when the Roman triumph’s central act of bull sacrifice is thought of as just that, with Mithras playing the role of victor as author of this success. The episodes depicted on many reliefs relate to a prophecy known to Firmicus Maternus and other Christian polemists, and which foretold the coming of a saviour, i.e. the first emperor, when Saturn returns and Apollo-Mithras will rule.
- By (author) Attilio Mastrocinque
"...The work is an important contribution to the field from one of its most established figures and will no doubt excite scholarly response for some time to come." --Dominic Dalglish, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.10.46
—
Other Titles in this Series
Magie und Raum
Der magische Schutz ausgewahlter Raume im Alten Agypten nebst einem Vergleich zuangrenzenden Kulturbereichen
Volume 13
Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations
Studies on the History of Religion and Anthropology of the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament
Volume 42
Weltkonstruktionen
Religiose Weltdeutung zwischen Chaos und Kosmos vom Alten Orient bis zum Islam
Volume 5
Foreign Women – Women in Foreign Lands
Studies on Foreignness and Gender in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East in the First Millennium BCE
Volume 35
Achikar in Elephantine
Die aramaische Achikarkomposition im Kontext des perserzeitlichen Elephantine
Volume 50
Schrift und Material
Praktische Verwendung religioser Text- und Bildtrager als Artefakte im Alten Agypten
Volume 41
Research on Israel and Aram
Autonomy, Independence and Related Issues. Proceedings of the First Annual RIAB Center Conference, Leipzig, June 2016. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times I
Volume 34
Figurines in Achaemenid Period Yehud
Jerusalem's History of Religion and Coroplastics in the Monotheism Debate
Volume 26
Feste der Ewigkeit
Untersuchungen zu den abydenischen Kulten wahrend des Alten und Mittleren Reiches
Volume 43
Weiser und Wesir
Studien zu Vorkommen, Rolle und Wesen des Gottes Thot im agyptischen Totenbuch
Volume 1
Gott unterwegs
Die traditions- und religionsgeschichtlichen Hintergrunde des Habakukliedes
Volume 36
Tel ‘En Gev
Report of the Keio Archaeological Mission, 2009-2011. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times V
Volume 48
The Physicality of the Other
Masks from the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean
Volume 27
The Storm-God and the Sea
The Origin, Versions, and Diffusion of a Myth throughout the Ancient Near East
Volume 37
Beyond Israel and Aram
The Archaeology and History of Iron Age Communities in the Central Levant. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times
Volume 49
Writing and Re-Writing History by Destruction
Proceedings of the Annual Minerva Center RIAB Conference, Leipzig, 2018. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times III
Volume 45
Der Priester Pinhas in Jerusalem und auf dem Berg Garizim
Eine intertextuelle Untersuchung und literar-, sozial- und religionsgeschichtliche Einordnung
Volume 51
Crafting for the Gods: Cult, Production, and Technological Identities
Proceedings of the Minerva School Workshop, Israel, 2022. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times X
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
