Mithra’s statue from Boztepe Hill
TNMM 611 ↔ CIMRM 14
A text from an eulogy on St. Eugen of Trapezos (1) composed by Constantinus, son of Lucites, tells how the saint, at the time of Diocletian, with two companions, destroyed a Mithras-statue, which stood on the mountain of Boz-Tepe. In the Middle Ages (2) this mountain was still called Μιθρίος βουνός and the hagiographer states that on the very spot where the Mithras-altar stood i.e. on the top of the mountain, a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist was built.
Recent studies have revealed, that the place of the sanctuary must have been near the ruins of this church and not on the western slope of the hill, as was previously accepted (3).
References
(1) Manuscript No. 215 of the Dionisiou monastery on the Athos published by Papadoulos-Kerameus Fontes Historiae Imperii Trapezuntini. Petersburg 1897 p. 8 17ff and p. 10 6ff (cf. MMM I 362f; II 55c). (2) Still called so in 1336 and 1362 in the Chronica of Trapezos by Panaretos in Tafel Eustathii Metropolitae opuscula. Frankfurt 1832 § 9 p. 362 40 and § 31 p. 367 40 quoted by MMM II 55c. (3) In his former publications Cumont is of the opinion that the spelaeum has to be looked for on that spot. The church of Panhagia Theoskepastos stood here. MMM II 55c; Cumont Studia Pontica II 367ff; Chrysanthos 106f; Cumont Mithra en Etrurie 100 n. 6; Mithra As. Min. 71 and n. 5.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
