(144)   Sat 4 Oct 97 10:01
By: Curtis Johnson
To: All
Re: Mithra Superstar
St:
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    Homer C. King, _The Background of Astronomy_ (Braziller,
 1958), pp. 92-94:

    "A cult closely associated with sun-worship, and one
 popular with the Roman army, was Mithraism.  Mithras, a god with
 strong solar associations, derived from Zorastrianism, the official
 religion of the Persians under the Sassanids.  In the pure
 Zorastrian faith Mithras was a god of light, the eye of Ahura
 Mazda, god of heaven and victor over Angra-Mainyu the power of
 darkness.  In Mithraism, Mithras received strong Hellensitic
 elements and and became the very sun, the heavenly and
 unconquerable light that protects mankind against evil.  Through
 his sacrifice of a rimeval bull the young and virile Mithras gave
 the promise of eternal life to mankind; through his mediation
 even the poorestof mortals could rise to the supreme heaven and
 share in a life of everlasting bliss with the godhead.  The
 background was frankly pagan, yet the compound was so well blended
 with attractive ingredients, even to the point of suggesting
 spiritual redemption through voluntary castigations and self-
 discipline, that it proved a serious rival to Christianity.
    Both doctrines had points in common.  Mithras, like Tammuz
 and Adonis (the beloved of Venus), spent half the year in the
 lower and half in the upper world.  Likewise the sun spends half
 the year below the celestial equator and half the year above it.
 Likewise Christ was born, gave His moral light to the world,
 died, and rose again--but without any connection with a seasonal
 drama.  Both Christianity and Mithraism shared a belief in
 immortality and the importance of moral purity through suffering.
 Both devolved on the idea (although at vastly different ethical
 levels) of sacrifice and divine mediation.
    That Mithraism had astronomical connections is suggested
 by inscriptions and paintings which portray a bull (representing
 the dying year of nature being attacked by other animals.
 Mithras, wearing a peaked Phyrgian cap and attire, kneels on the
 bull, grasps its nostrils with ne hand, and slits its throat with
 the other.  As the life-blood flows from the unfortunate animal an
 outstretched serpent attacks the fore-hoof, a devouring dog
 (_Sirius_) leaps up to the gory neck, and a scorpion nips his
 genitals--doubtless with more effect than the crab who once
 pinched the heel of Hercules.  Ears of corn (the _Pleiades_)
 spring from the brush of the bull's tail Egyptian fashion, and
 hold out the promise of new life.  On either side stand Hesperos
 and Phosphoros, two divine torch-bearers, one with his torch
 inclined upwards, the other with his torch inclined downwards,
 whilst the entire scene is often framed by the twelve signs of
 the zodiac.  The panel probably perpetuates the time when the
 vernal equinoctial point fell in the sign of the Bull which
 therefore ushered in the solar year, and when the autumnal
 equinoctial point fell in the Scorpion.  The two figures seem
 to present both the evening and morning aspects of Venus, and
 their torches, the ascent and descent of the sun from the
 celestial equator.
    Since the sun reaches its lowest noon-day altitude in
 the northern sky on the 25th December, the time of the winter
 solstice, this date was chosen for celebrating the nativity of
 Mithras.  On this day his initiates held festivals and kindled
 lights, the gleaming tapers of which represented the fire of the
 newborn sun.  On this day also the Syrians decorated the pine
 trees sacred to Adonis, and branches of holly and yellow
 mistletoe adorned respectively the revels of Saturnus and
 Diana-Artemis.  Thereafter the sun rose with increasing height
 in the heavens and heralded the approach of yet another spring
 and the promise of summer fruits.  In view of the widespread
 popularity of this winter festival, the early Western Church
 chose December 25 for celebrating the nativity of Christ.
 For similar reasons the festival of His resurrection was
 celebrated at the time of the full moon on or next following
 the vernal equinox.




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