Mithras, or MITHRA, a Perso-Iranian divinity, whose worship, after passing through several changes and transformations, spread itself for a time far beyond the limits of its native seat. In the Zendavesta, or sacred writings of the ancient Persians, Mithras appears as chief of the Izeds or good genii, the god of the heavenly light and the lord of all countries. Protector and supporter of man in this life, he watches over his soul in the next, defending it against the spirits of evil. In the dualism of Zoroaster he fights as an invincible hero on the side of the principle of good, Ahura-Mazda or Ormuzd, in his eternal struggle with his rival Angra-Mainyu or Ahriman. At this stage the qualities attributed to Mithras had probably only a moral signification. Afterwards, as the political power of the Persians increased and their religion grew, by the natural processes of development and absorption, more ritualistic and composite, Mithras became the sun-god and was represented by the orb of day, which was worshipped in his name. By degrees his importance increased till he had scarcely a rival in the Persian pantheon. Unfortunately, owing to the almost entire destruction of the early religious literature of the East by the fanaticism of the followers of Mohammed, our knowledge of Mithraism as the dominant religion of its day is indirect and vague. Too great reliance is not to be placed on the speculations in which some modern writers such as Lajard indulge regarding it. But it would seem to have been, in its ultimate form at least, a system of secret rites and mysteries. For admission to these the aspirant was prepared by a series of trials of a severe description. He then underwent initiation, which, when duly and completely performed, comprised seven, or according to others twelve, degrees or successive steps, symbolically marked by the names of certain birds and animals. Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance of sacred formulas, are also said to have been among the inaugurative acts. Most of the ceremonies through which the devotee had thus to pass were of an extraordinary and even dangerous character. In spite, however, of all this rigour, Mithraism must have had attractions of no ordinary kind. Introduced into Rome in 68 B.C. by some Cilician pirates whom Pompey had captured and whose national religion it was, it rapidly spread through the greater part of the empire. The well-known taurine tablets sculptured in bas-relief are the most interesting of its monuments that have come down to our time. There is a fine example in the British Museum, and others are to be seen in the principal museums of Europe. Mithras now appears as a beautiful youth, dressed in Phrygian garb, kneeling upon a bull, into whose neck he plunges a dagger. Surrounding the group are various emblems, a scorpion, a serpent, a dog, a raven, a crescent, and others, to which an astronomical or an allegorical meaning has been variously assigned. Caves in the living rock were often the scene of this sacrifice of the bull; but it was also performed in small temples or Mithraeums, one of the most perfect of which was discovered in Ostia by the Cavaliere Lanciani (see Athenæum, Nov. 6, 1886). The floor and walls of this chapel are lined with mosaics representing the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the course of the planets, and containing allusions to the rites of Mithras. Tablets found at Housesteads in the Roman wall and at York are proof of the presence of Mithraism in Britain, to which it had doubtless been brought by the legionaries. Having come into collision with Christianity, it was formally suppressed by the prefect Gracchus 378 A.D., though St Jerome speaks of it as being still practised in his time.
See Montfaucon, L'Antiquité Expliquée (Paris, 1719); Hammer-Purgstall, Mithriaca ou les Mithriaques (1833); Wellbeloved, Eburacum (York, 1842); Lajard, Recherches sur le Culte Public et les Mystères de Mithra (atlas of plates in 1847, letterpress not till 1867); Windischmann, Mithra (1857).