Aion of York

TNMM 250 ↔ CIMRM 833 & 834

Statue in sandstone (H. 0.61), found in York (1875). York, Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

On a base a standing, naked figure, dressed in a fringed loin-cloth, which is held together by a snakelike belt. In his hanging I.h. two keys, whereas the other, which is broken off as far as the elbow, must have held a sceptre, part of which is still visible on the edge of the stone, together with an undefinable object (thunder- bolt ?), half of which is preserved on the fringes. To his shoulders two wings are attached. Head lost.

On the base, in a tabula ansata, an inscription.

CIMRM 834 / MMM II No. 474

D(eo) ... / Vol(usii) Ire[naeus et] / Arimaniu[s posuerunt].

An inscription from York proves that the Mithraic lion-headed god was not Zurvan, the Endless Time of the Iranian religion, as Cumont proposed, but was Arimanius, i.e. Ahriman, the Iranian god of darkness and evil.

Described in Eboracum as ’Statue, of gritstone, 13ins by 24ins, the upper half free-standing, the lower in relief; the head and right hand missing. The subject is a male figure, winged and naked except for a fringed loin-cloth tied with a knotted snake; in his left hand he carries a pair of keys, and in his right hand he grasped a sceptre. A notch is cut between the feet.... VOL(VSIVS) IRE[NAEVS D(ONVM) [D(EDIT) ARIMANI V(OTVM) [S(OLVENS L(IBENS) M(ERITO) ’Volusius Irenaeus, paying his vow willingly and deservedly to Arimanes, gave (this) gift.’

The dedication is to Arimanius, the Mithraic god of Evil. The missing head was most probably that of a lion, symbolic of all-devouring Death. The snake girdle represents the tortuous course of the sun though the sky; the wings signify the winds; while the keys are those of the heavens and the sceptre is the sign of dominion.’