Mithraic Studies. Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies
Mithraic Studies is the published proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, held at the University of Manchester in 1971 and edited by John Richard Hinnells. Issued in two volumes in 1975, the work assembles contributions from many of the leading scholars of the period and marks an important stage in the development of Mithraic studies as an independent field of research.
The collection covers a wide range of subjects, including archaeology, iconography, epigraphy, history of religions, Iranian traditions and the Roman mysteries of Mithras. Among its contributions are Franz Cumont’s posthumously published study of the Mithraeum of Dura-Europos, edited by Eric David Francis, together with influential papers by Richard L. Gordon, Mary Boyce, Geo Widengren, Reinhold Merkelbach, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin and other specialists.
Although many individual interpretations have since been revised or superseded, Mithraic Studies remains one of the principal collective works in the historiography of Mithraic scholarship. Its papers continue to be widely cited and provide an essential record of the state of research during a period that profoundly reshaped modern approaches to the cult of Mithras.
