The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries – Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World
The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World
In the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great the dramatic unification of the Mediterranean world created exceptionally fertile soil for the growth of new religions. Christianity, for example, was one of the innovative religious movements that arose during this time. However, Christianity had many competitors, and one of the most remarkable of these was the ancient Roman "mystery religion" of Mithraism.
Like the other "mystery cults" of antiquity, Mithraism kept its beliefs strictly secret, revealing them only to initiates. As a result, the cult's teachings were never written down. However, the Mithraists filled their temples with an enigmatic iconography, an abundance of which has been unearthed by archaeologists. Until now, all attempts to decipher this iconography have proven fruitless. Most experts have been content with a vague hypothesis that the iconography somehow derived from ancient Iranian religion.
In this groundbreaking work, David Ulansey offers a radically different theory. He argues that Mithraic iconography was actually an astronomical code, and that the cult began as a religious response to a startling scientific discovery. As his investigation proceeds, Ulansey penetrates step by step the mysteries concealed in Mithraic iconography, unitl finally he is able to reveal the central secret of the cult: a secret consisting of an ancient vision of the ultimate nature of the universe.
Brimming with the excitement of discovery–and reading like an intellectual detective story–Ulansey's compelling book will intrigue scholars and general readers alike.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Good, but a little too speculative
Ulansey's book is an excellent discussion of Mithraism. His suggestion that the cult arose in Cicilia, as a product of new astrological discoveries grafted onto the existing cult of Perseus, is most interesting, and very well argued. The book is quite readable, and as a statement of a position works well. Like most modern scholars, he discards Cumont's theory that the Persian deity Mitra is the same as Mithras. The cult must have been devised, in his view, some time around 70 BC, based on the statement in Plutarch, "Pompey", that the Cicilian pirates were devoted to Mithras.
However I came away feeling that he had started with a theory, around which the evidence was moulded. In one or two places, I felt that the narrative adopted the tricks of the Von Daniken school, whereby a problem is raised purely in order to introduce a pre-determined solution, giving the reader a quite fallacious feeling of 'investigation.' Surely the story should arise naturally from the data, not be imposed on it?
The book presumes a general familiarity with the evidence for Mithraism, and so would not be the best book to start with. A better starting point would be Manfred Clauss, "The Roman Cult of Mithras." This suggests that the cult originated in Rome in the first century AD. Cumont's book — the conclusions from his magisterial survey of all the data translated into English — is now out of date. After reading Clauss, then one might read both Ulansey and Cumont.
5 Stars this book just grabs you
i like most people read the reviews first or get a recommendation on which book to buy before purchasing and this is exactly what i did for this one . this book does read like a detective story and the author is sure to include all the details you would need to make up your own mind regarding his theories . although alot cannot be confirmed due to there being little to no written historical records on the religon of mithras he does a very good job in providing whatever evidence there is . in a way he manages to bring you back in time and have you look at the universe through the eyes and mind of the ancients in order to understand how this cult came to be . this is an excellent book for anyone getting started in understanding this religon .
5 Stars Simple and Profound
It is a great book that upon finishing, you can put it down and say: "oh, of course". This is such a book. Ulansey, in explaining the mysteries of Mithraism, does something so simple, yet at the same time, so profound. He actually explains a mystery that makes sense, and in doing so returns a certain amount of dignity to those people who followed this religion.
It is hard, in a culture that equates evolution to progress, to give the past its proper due. We see the past as simplistic (or worse "mysterious", which is just as condescending) as opposed to our self-declared complex modernity, and because we see it this way, we tend to discount ancient religion, expecting them to be simplistic. Ulansey shows that this isn't the case. Mithraism, as he shows, was an extremely complex religion, rich in imagery, with a mystery that represented the pinnacle of Hellenistic science. It was a rational attempt to understand the ultimate source of power in a universe as it was understood at the time. There was nothing simple or mysterious (and certainly nothing Von Danikenian) about it.
The problem many readers today have is that the world has changed. We have a hard time understanding the impact that Astrology had on the lives of people in the past. In short because we know better today, we do not understand how they could have believed it then, and because we cannot understand, we tend to discount. However, if we just use our imagination, and try to think like someone would in the past, the true beauty of the religion comes forth.
The complaints other reviewers make are good, though I think less important than they believe. In answer to the Old Philosopher's question: why would you name the religion after "Perseus" when in time he would give way to the next constellation? I agree that the belief that this was named after the King of Tarsus is a bit of a stretch (though he was the Greek world's "last, best hope" against the Romans). I think that Mithras was chosen as the name because of the Persian connection, because all religions at the time wanted an ancient pedigree, and because Persia in the minds of that era represented the inheritors of the wisdom of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans (the semi-mythical inventors of astrology/astronomy). This again would suggest a rational approach (tinged with mysticism, a definite Hellenistic tendency) that is in keeping with Ulansey's theory. Also, Ulansey most certainly does explain the mystery and the origin. The issue is that the mystery seems small to us today because, as I suggested above, we no longer live in their world where the earth was the rational center of the universe, and their god the secret mover of all creation.
So in closing, if you have any interest in this period, I highly recommend this book. It is a window into the mindset of that era, and should help promote one's interest into how the past thought.
4 Stars Informative, Mistitled, Scholarly Paradigm-Shift in Mithraic Studies
This isn't really about the "origins" of the Mithraic mysteries. In fact, the author – David Ulansey – states up front that Mithraism is architecture rich but literature poor. Since the religion was reserved for initiates and apparently nothing was written down, we don't have papyri or parchments as we do for the sister religions of the day, including the brand new sister religion, Christianity. Ulansey also respectfully criticizes the work of the man responsible for most of what many people currently believe about Mithraism, Franz Cumont. In Cumont's view, Roman Mithraism was related to the worship of the Iranian "Mithra," so the Roman artifacts were viewed through that lens. Ulansey takes this view of Roman Mithraism and sets it aside, in essence starting all over.
What Ulansey then does is take the reader through this Roman mystery cult through the surviving art and iconography. Roman Mithraism rose in the 1st century CE and was overwhelmed by Christianity in the late 4th century. Ulansey examines the persistent patterns in iconography – the ubiquitous "slaying of the bull" and stars (the "tauroctony") and ties it in with the writings of Neoplatonist Porphyry and Greek Christian Origen to explain possible astral symbolisms of the tauroctony.
From there, Ulansey leads us into what he believes to be the astronomical representation of Mithras himself, based on surviving iconography, and then Perseus – another Mithraic figure. In the process of doing this, Ulansey demonstrates a unique Roman mystery religion mentioned in Greco-Roman writings from time to time, far removed from the Persian Mithra and likely centered in the movements in the stars which would have been very important to the seafaring peoples of the Hellenized Roman empire. His chapters on "The Meaning of the Bull Slaying" and "Mithraic Cosmic Symbolism" involve speculation indeed, but it is academically based and not unreasonable.
In short, this book should interest people who are students of ancient religions and the Roman Empire. Ulansey's thoughts may or may not be vindicated in time, but they were thought-provoking for me.
4 Stars Bravo!
Once more a researcher has been couragious enough to challenge those who dismiss astronomical significance to the origins of ancient religions. I was especially intrigued to see the representations of the two uniquely balanced constellations that marked the vernal and autumnal equinoxes of another, earlier epoch. I am referring to Tauroctonys with images of the scorpion on one of two torchbearers and the bull on the other. With a "matching" bright star in each of the two constellations (Aldebaran in Taurus, Antares in Scorpius)the sky was in miraculous balance and the precessionally caused "loss" or change of these equinoctial "markers"… (stars of Taurus the bull were effected first and the Mithraic representation of the bull being killed have images of the scorpion attacking his testicles), surely caused important myths to be created. The obvious fact is that the backward shifting of Taurus must have been noted and given great importance or the story would not have survived into an epoch where another duo of constellations (Aries and Libra) marked the equinoxes. This supports my postulation (in The Death Of Gods in Ancient Egypt)that this event was partly responsible for certain confusing aspects of the Egyptian text on the Shabaka Stone, commonly cited as The Memphite Theology. This was dealt with in the Chapter from my book titled, "The Judgement of the Council of the Gods" and the ancient text told of the conflict and trial between the two gods, Horus and Seth, and the resulting verdict and sentencing. Great job David Ulansey! Jane B. Sellers
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- The Mysteries of Mithras – The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World
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- Mithraic Mysteries Restored and Modernized – A Drama of Interior Initiation
- The Lost World of Genesis One – Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate
- Lord of the Cosmos – Mithras, Paul and the Gospel of Mark
- Correlations Between Mithraism and Christianity
- Mithras Mysteries and Inititation Rediscovered
- Egyptian Mysteries – Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Vol 2
- Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras – The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe
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