The Iron Wheel and the Unconquered Sun

By: Michael Lohr

The Cult of Mithras, the Roman derivative of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, was the primary rival of both Christianity and the Cult of Isis among the ancient Romans. For the first four centuries of the first millennium A.D. it was the most popular religion in the Roman Empire. Especially popular with soldiers they were the ones who brought the religion back with them from Persia and the were the ones who carried its rituals to the far flung corners of the known world. In 307 A.D. the Roman Emperor officially declared Mithra as the "Protector of the Empire."

The Christian mythos later copied many aspects of the Mithraic Mystery religion. According to both ancient Roman and Vatican historians, St. Augustine even went so far as to declare that Christians and the worshipers of Mithras and Ahura Mazda, the One God of the ancient Persians, worshiped that same father deity. It was even stated in ancient Persian folktales that Mithra's mother was a virgin and he was the sacred harvest of a virgin birth. It was also stated in Persian/Mithraic folklore that great Magi visited Mithras upon the eve of his birth and that he, once grown into adulthood, performed miracles such as raising the dead, healing the sick, walking on water and casting out devils.

Even more similarities between Jesus Christ and Mithras occur, including the fact that before ascending into the heavens Mithras had a feast, a Last Supper, with his twelve disciples, who according to myth, equated the twelve symbols of the zodiac. (Author's Note: For those that know of such things, the images of procession and star movement abound in Zoroastrianism and Mithraic religion.) Mithraic religion had the seven sacraments, just as the Christian faith has incorporated into its practices for centuries. Mithras was also said to, upon death, be placed into a cave, an image of his sacred earth mother's womb, where upon three days passing, he walked once more among the living. More over, Mithraism entered into many doctrines of the early Christian church through Manichean Christianity. Case in point, the Mithraic festival of Epiphany, marking the coming of the sun-priests, or Magi (a Zoroastrian priest was also called an Ervad in the Avestan tongue), to the messiah's place of birth, was adopted by the Christian church in 813 A.D.

The origins of Mithras and of Zoroastrianism as a collective, practicing religion are found in the archaeological record of ancient Persia around the mid 600's B.C.E. Yet, evidence indicates that this religion had its roots in a much older Aryan religion, practiced by the Indo-Iranian tribes as they splintered from the central Eurasian core of Indo-European groups, as early as 2,000 B.C.E. Mithras was a neoteric cognate of the Indo-Iranian sun god(des), Mitra, and the Indus Valley sun god, Mitravaruna. Mitra seems to share a co-existing duality of a male/female divinity. A most unusual characteristic for a patriarchal religion.

More over there is much evidence to show that Mithras was actually an ancient sun/sky goddess. A cognate of the demi-god/hero Mithras was the Assyrian Great Mother, Mylitta. Also a female Mithra, the androgynous Mithra-Anahita, or Sabazius-Anaitis, was the central goddess figure in several ancient Anatolian mystery cults. Anahita was the Anatolian "Mother of Waters" or primal seas, much like the Sumerian Tiamat. She, which is of the primal waters, the pool of creation, from her womb comes the bringer of light. Another stone of truth is unturned, another ember of meaning has been revealed from the mists of time and obscurity.

References:

Green, Miranda, The Sun-Gods of Ancient Europe

Siren, Christopher B., The Assyro-Babylonian Mythology

Walker, Barbara G., The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

Bacon, Edward, Vanished Civilizations of the Ancient World

Bratton, F. Gladstone, Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East

Carter, J.B., The Religious Life of Ancient Rome

Cumont, Franz, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism

Cumont, Franz, The Mysteries of Mithra

Copyright 2003.