Crossword clues for mithraism
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mithraism \Mithraism\ prop. n. The ancient Persian religion which worshiped Mithra; it was popular among Romans during first three centuries a. d.
Syn: Mithraicism.
Wikipedia
Mithraism, also known as the Mythraic mysteries, was a mystery religion centred around the god Mithras that was practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to the 4th century. The religion was inspired by Persian worship of the god Mithra ( proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), though the Greek Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practise is debated. The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.
Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in underground temples (called mithraea), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome.
Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene ( tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments. It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive, with limited information to be derived from the inscriptions, and only brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.
The Romans regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources. Since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries. In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity with similarities such as liberator-saviour, hierarchy of adepts (bishops, deacons, presbyters), communal meal and a hard struggle of Good and Evil (bull-killing/crucifixion).
Usage examples of "mithraism".
Like the initiate to Mithraism the human race has need, perhaps, of a periodical bloodbath and descent into the grave.
Jessup and the soldier about the glory that is Mithraism and its growth since the days when, almost two thousand years ago, it prospered unrivaled among the Roman Legions.
The Carthaginians spread their power throughout the middle east Mithraism was acknowledged as their state religion.
In the early days of Christianity the religion was struggling to establish itself against the popular Roman gods, and the Mithraism of the Persians.
He tells Jessup and the soldier about the glory that is Mithraism and its growth since the days when, almost two thousand years ago, it prospered unrivaled among the Roman Legions.
Romans, and for a time Mithraism was a genuine threat to Christianity, while other Gods, like Mercury and Isis, also continued to be worshipped, but Christianity was by far the most successful of the imports.
One of the central ideas of Mithraism was the dualistic notion that there is abroad in the world a perennial battle between good and evil, light and darkness.