Part of my study abroad trip to London and Rome in September is a series of blog posts about some assigned readings, and reflections upon them. This is an additional post, about a chapter that isn’t part of the reading list, and is about Robert Hughes’ Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History.
“Frustratingly little, and from documentary sources almost nothing, is known about this religion. It was a mystery cult that had managed to keep most of its secrets. Mithras, or Mithra, was a god hero who embodied light and truth. His acolytes knew him as, among other honorifics, “lord of the wide pastures,” and his central mythic action was the capture and killing of a wild bull, which he dragged to a cave and then slaughtered. From its blood sprang life and grain. The sacrificing god was known as Mithras Tauroctonos, Mithras the Bull Slayer. … This story may descend from the Greek myth of Perseus killing the Gorgon Medusa, and may have originated with King Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was named for Mithras but claimed descent from Persues.”
– except from Chapter 4: Pagans Versus Christians of Robert Hughes’ Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History
Mithras is one of those curious bits about history, it’s known about, I’ve read about it for other classes, but not much is known of it. I’ve heard before that early Christian myth or symbolism may have been drawn from it, but Hughes debunks that notion a few pages later.
Mithraea (worship places for Mithras) have been found in Rome. I would like to see one, but I don’t know if it fits into the itenerary for this trip. From reading Hughes, it sounds like there is one still intact beneath the Basilica of San Clemente, but I don’t know what sort of permissions would have to be arranged to see it, if it is open to the public, or where that is in relation to where we are staying.
I find the pre-Christian bits of Rome far more interesting than the post-Constantine bits. The earlier the historical site, the more ancient, the closer to when the mythologies were written or invented, the more interesting they are to me. It seems, to me, that you have to go as far back in history as possible to get to the purest, most original, forms of the stories (and history) that we know and repeat today.