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The Mysteries of Mithras
Sculpted scenes of the youthful Mithras slaying a bull have been found across the Roman Empire, offering an image of a god that is unlike other deities in the Roman pantheon. Margaux Bekas and Pascal Capus take us into the heart of this enigmatic cult.
Among the many names and faces that make up the Roman pantheon are gods borrowed from the religions of other cultures. One intriguing import, who joined the divine panoply around the 1st century AD, was the mysterious bull-slayer Mithras, a deity associated with contracts in Persia long before his adoption – and adaptation – by the Romans.
With a myth connected to regeneration, Mithras came to be worshipped both in Rome and across the provinces of the empire. The far-reaching extent of the cult and its cave-like sanctuaries, or mithraea – found everywhere from Spain to Syria – is reflected in the international approach of a project that is bringing a new presentation of Mithras to
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