Roman Mithraism

A secretive Roman mystery cult of soldiers, centered on a god slaying a cosmic bull.

c. 100 – 400 CE · Roman Empire · Iranian & Dualist

Mithraism was a mystery religion popular in the Roman army, drawing the name of the Iranian god Mithra into a wholly new cult known mostly from its art. Initiates advanced through seven grades and shared ritual meals in cave-like temples adorned with the tauroctony — Mithras slaying a bull. It flourished alongside early Christianity as one of several competing paths of personal salvation in the empire.

Key figures

• Mithras, the bull-slayer
• Grades of initiates

Texts

• Iconography (few texts survive)

Beliefs

• Salvation through secret initiation
• A drama of cosmic sacrifice
• Ascent of the soul through grades

Rituals

• The tauroctony (bull-slaying) image
• Ritual meals in underground mithraea
• Seven grades of initiation

Grew from

• Zoroastrianism
• Ancient Roman Religion

Connections in the atlas

• The Mihr Yasht (Hymn to Mithra)
• Halo and nimbus
• Hellenistic horoscopic astrology
• Sacred meals (ritual)
• Rebirth and transformation
• ? Why did Christianity spread so fast in the Roman Empire?
• The Persians and Iranian peoples
• Bull
• Sun disc and sun wheel