Page 84 - All About History 48 - 2017 UK

Roman Mystery Cults

part in the Greater Mysteries, which took place over and bread. The goal of Mithraism was to purify the with burning torches, and plunge the torches into
several days of sacrifices, purification and fasting. immortal soul, making it ready for a return to the the water, then bring them up again still alight – as
The precise elements of the mysteries themselves realm of light upon death of the individual. live sulphur was mixed with calcium. Men were said
are not known to historians today – they were to be abducted by the gods, when they were tied
have included music, dancing and a re-enactment Suppression to machines and carried out of sight into hidden
shrouded in secrecy, after all – but they seem to
caves.” Not least, Livy seems to have feared the
of the abduction and recovery of Persephone. Romans did not universally approve of mystery mysteries as excuses for all sorts of sexual licence
The most dramatic part of the mysteries seems cults, even if they undeniably achieved widespread between the male and female initiates. To some
to have been a vision beheld by the participant of popularity and won many adherents. Even some extent, the intense insistence upon secrecy logically,
something in the brightest of light. emperors joined the societies, not least among them if unintentionally, induced anxiety among the
Mithras was in origin a god associated with truth Emperor Domitian (who reigned from 81-96 CE) uninitiated of Roman society.
and a lieutenant of the primary Zoroastrian deity, who was initiated into the mysteries of Isis, and Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312
Ahura Mazda. Once it came into the Roman world, Emperor Gallienus (who reigned from 260-268), under the auspices of the Christian God led him
Mithraism was a heavily changed religion that now who became an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries. to make Christianity a legal religion under imperial
viewed Mithras as a saviour god. The rites of his cult One Roman traditionalist – the 1st century BCE law in the next year in the Edict of Milan. Christians
echoed the origin myth of Mithras, who was said historian Livy – would write in horror that during increased in number and power as the 4th century
to have been born from a rock. Ahura Mazda had Bacchic mysteries, “Matrons dressed as bacchants progressed. The legal position of paganism, which
created first a wild bull, and Mithras wrestled it and with their hair dishevelled, would run to the Tiber the mystery cults were part of, began to deteriorate
hauled it into a cave. The bull escaped, but Mithras
tracked it down and slew it by a dagger thrust to “Theintenseinsistenceuponsecrecy
its throat. Life then flowed from the gushing blood
of the bull. Mithraists would convene their worship logically, if unintentionally, induced anxiety
meetings in underground chapels, which they called
caves, where they shared communal meals of wine amongtheuninitiatedofRomansociety”

as Christianity became the most powerful religion
in the empire. Still, the practice of mystery religions
did not disappear quickly. Even in the latter half
of the 4th century prominent Romans would
proudly acknowledge having been initiated into the
mysteries of various cults. However, at the end of
the century, in 391, Emperor Theodosius I forbade
the worship of pagan gods in Rome as well as visits
to their temples. In the following year, he outlawed
the practice of all pagan religions whatsoever.
Other forces would also act to bring about the end
of mystery religions. In c.395, the Goths attacked
and destroyed the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore
at Eleusis. The sanctuary was never to be repaired,
bringing an end to the cult mysteries held there
since at least the 6th century BCE. Paganism would
hold on in diminished form for many years. There
were still enough adherents that Saint Augustine
saw the need to compose his City Of God to rebut
the allegation, put forward by Rome’s remaining
pagans, that the neglect of the old gods had led
to the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410. The
overall trend, however, was for mystery religions to
Anartist’simpressionoftheinteriorofaTempleofMithras. fade away as the ancient world changed and the
Notetheshrinesandcostumesusedintheceremonies
Middle Ages began.

Neptune Mars Mercury Ceres
The trident- Mars was the The fleet-footed Goddess of the
wielding Neptune honoured god of war messenger of earth and all
was lord of the se among the military- Jupiter, Mercury growing things,
and the younger minded Romans, conducted the Ceres was patroness
brother of Jupite second only to Jupiter spirits of the dead to of fertility and sister
n their estimation. the Underworld. to Jupiter.

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