Daily Gazette/15

In these two key passages, Justin Martyr interprets Mithraic rituals and myths as demonic parodies of Christ’s incarnation, the Eucharist, and biblical revelation.

Student of archeology in Brno and enthusiast of the ancient world.

White marble relief depicting Mithras as bull-slayer in a grotto from the Froehner collection, now in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris.

Terracotta krater from the southern part of the Friedberg Mithraeum, discovered in 1849. The vessel is decorated in relief with serpents, a scorpion and a ladder-like motif.

In Letter 107 to Laeta, Jerome combines a pastoral reflection on conversion with an account of the urban prefect Gracchus, who ordered the destruction of a Mithraic cave in Rome, listing the seven grades of initiation associated with the cult.

Roman relief from a sanctuary on the Janiculum Hill (Rome), showing a male figure bound by a serpent coiled seven times.

In these passages from his hymns and satires, Julian articulates a solar theology in which Helios governs cosmic order and time. Within this framework, Mithras appears as a personal divine guide associated with the ascent of souls.

A series of polemical passages in which a leading fourth-century Christian theologian presents the cult of Mithras as a religion defined by cruelty, bodily suffering, and shameful initiation rites.

Bronze head of Mithras in a radiate Phrygian cap.

Fragmentary relief corner depicting Mithras as bull-slayer, preserving the bull’s hindquarters, scorpion, serpent and part of a torchbearer, with a partial inscription.

Marble votive altar with inscription to Mithras, featuring coiled, fan-like motifs above the text and associated with the statio Enensis.

The article examines two recently discovered Mithraic representations of Cautes from Alba Iulia, focusing on a rare iconographic type showing the torchbearer with a bucranium.

Statue of Cautes from Bodobrica, discovered around 1940, depicting the torchbearer standing before a tree or rock and associated with a bucranium.

Memoir by Félix Lajard analysing a Mithraic bas-relief discovered in Vienne in 1830. Based on direct examination of the fragments and their context, the study corrects an earlier misidentification and documents a rare lion-headed figure within a probable mithraeum.

Small triangular slab bearing a Latin inscription referring to Sol Invictus and to a sacred cave, probably dating to the 4th century AD.

Head, possibly of Mithras, wearing a Phrygian cap, found in the bed of the Millicri River, near Locri, Calabria.

Marble statue of Cautes, found at Ostia. The head, one arm and the legs are missing. The figure wears a short tunic and raises the torch in the canonical upward gesture.

Small limestone stele, discovered at Apt in 1903. It depicts a standing torchbearer in the conventional Mithraic posture and dress, accompanied by a cock placed at his feet.

In polemical passages from the late second and early third centuries, Tertullian portrays the cult of Mithras as a demonic imitation of Christian rites and provides rare early references to Mithraic initiation and ritual symbolism.

An anonymous late-antique Christian poem, traditionally attributed to Pseudo-Paulinus of Nola (Poema 32, vv. 109–111), that ridicules pagan cults and presents Mithras, Isis, and Serapis as gods of concealment, contradiction, and unstable forms rather than light.