Flavios Gerontios
Pater nominos at Sidon Mithraeum.
Sculptures from Sidon at Musée du Louvre
1967 Musée du Louvre / Maurice et Pierre Chuzeville
Marble statuette of Hecate depicted as a triple goddess surrounded by dancers
Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0.jpg "Head left-side view of the lion-headed statue from Sidon")
Head left-side view of the lion-headed statue from Sidon
Coyau / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Biography of Flavios Gerontios
- Flavios Gerontios was a Pater of the Mithraeum of Sidon.
- Active c. 389 in Syria-Coele (Syria).
The title Pater nominos, 'father of the customs' or 'lawful father' is also attested at Tomis (in Scythia) in connection with a priest of Hekate. For the use of fictive parental language for leaders or benefactors of associations, see Harland 2009.
—Associations in the Greco-Roman world
The name Flavius indicates that Gerontios’ ancestors had been made Roman citizens in the period of the Flavian emperors, nearly two centuries earlier, since the enfranchised added to their own names that of the ruling house. The expression “authorized pater” indicates that the Mithraic cult had some form of consecration comparable to ordination. See Leroy A. Campbell, Typology of Mithraic Tauroctones, Berytus, XI (1954), no. 101.
As F. Baratte suggests, one has the impression that there were two or even three mithreas at Sidon, of different periods. A part of their installations was gathered by Flavius Gerontios and installed in his sanctuary at the end of the 4th century.
Mentions
Hekate of Sidon
The Hekataion of Sidon shows a triple Hekate surrounded by three dancing nymphs.
Lion-headed Aion from Sidon
Edmon Durighello, a journalist, discovered this Aion marble in 1887.
Taurcotony sculpture from Sidon
The Mithras killing the bull sculpture from Sidon, currently Lebanon.
References
- Philip Harland (2016) Associations in the Greco-Roman world