Daily Gazette/13

Dear Behzad,

You are, of course quite right.

That said, the earliest account of the tauroctony that exactly matches the more famous frescoes and sculptures of the Roman era is that described in the Epic of Gilgamesh circa 2,000 BCE - and even that is likely to be a relatively ’late’ account of an already ancient oral tradition).

The gods Mitra, Varuna and Indra are all cited in the famous Hittite - Mitanni peace treaty circa 1,380 BCE. These people appear to have entered Anatolia circa 2,000 BCE, the Hittites by way of the Caucasus.

The earliest image of what looks like the tauroctony appears on a ring of King Saussatar (Shaushtatar) of Mitanni from the fifteenth century BCE.

Of course our understanding of the origins of the Hittite and Mitanni leaves something to be desired, but they appear to have entered the culturally Luwian zone of Anatolia sometime in the second millennium BCE. Certainly in the case of the Hittites they tended to assimilate themselves to the Luwian pantheon and language in their religious rites. All of this is, admittedly, somewhat foggy - the decipherment of Luwian hieroglyphics is still ongoing.

For the Hellenistic Age it is clear that the syncretism arising from the Greek, native Anatolian and Persian influence gave rise to a rich cultural mix and that the Hellenistic Kingdoms (who claimed ancestry from Cyrus, Darius & Alexander) acknowledged Mithras as Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes.

The native Carian dynasty, the Hekatomnids, were appointed Persian satraps for south west Anatolia, adopted Persian monumental architecture (at Labraunda) where they also conducted sacred banquets in purpose built Andron (which are neither a Greek nor a Roman tradition) and whose layout is identical to the later mithraea of the Roman Empire.

As far as the transmission of the cult to Rome goes I agree that this was entirely due to the Parthian king, Tiridates I, soujourn in Rome under Nero in 66 CE.

I conjecture that the introduction of the cult to the Roman elite was part of the process of underwriting the political settlement between Rome and Parthia over Armenia - Mitra / Mithras was, after all, the god of treaties and agreements par excellence.

That said we still have the early attestation concerning the Cilician pirates celebrating secret mystery rites of Mithras in the first century BCE.

Beneath all of these ’royal’ goings on we know that trade routes connected vast swathes of the Near/Middle East with Europe and Asia and as far as Afghanistan - how early? Certainly by the Bronze Age; but if the evidence of the Amber, Lapis Lazuli and Obsidian trades are anything to go by long, long before.

So yes, the Cult of Mithras was introduced to the Roman elite by the Parthian King of Armenia - but the roots and question of ultimate origins remain far from clear.

I do hope that you enjoy the book - hopefully it will (fingers crossed) be emerging from the printers in the next week or so.

Thank you for taking an interest in my work, I do hope that you find the book of interest.

Very best,

Peter Mark Adams
Author