Mithras in Syria-Coele

The material documented in Syria-Coele reflects the province’s importance within the commercial, intellectual and religious networks of the eastern Mediterranean. Major cities and frontier routes contributed to the circulation of Mithraic cults across the Roman Near East.

Mithraic monuments of Syria-Coele

Mithraeum of Dura Europos

The most emblematic of the Syrian Mithraea was discovered in 1933 by a team led by the Russian historian Mikhaïl Rostovtzeff.

CIMRM 34

Mount Nemrut Dağı

Mount Nemrut or Nemrud is one of the highest peaks in the eastern Taurus Mountains, southeastern Turkey. On its summit large statues stand around what is supposed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC.

CIMRM 28

Mithraeum of Sidon

The Mithraeum of Sidon may have escaped destruction because the Mithras worshippers walled up the entrance to the underground sanctuary.

CIMRM 74

Head of Mithras at Nemrud Dag

The colossal head has been identified as a solar god, Apollo-Mihr-Mithras-Helios-Hermes.

CIMRM 29

Antiochus I shakes hands with Mithras

Antiochus I of Commagene shakes Mithras hands in this relief from the Nemrut Dagi temple.

CIMRM 30

Mithraea of Dülük

The Mithraea of Doliche, ancient Dülük, Turkey, are unique in that they represent two distinct shrines on the same site.

Lion relief from Nemrut Dağı

The lion relief from Nemrut Dag has the moon and several stars over his body.

CIMRM 31

Lion-headed Aion from Sidon

The controversial Italian journalist Edmon Durighello discovered this marble statue of a young naked Aion in 1887.

CIMRM 78

Frescoes of 'Magis' from Dura Europos

Some scholars have speculated that the scrolls both figures hold in their hands represent Eastern doctrines brought to the Western world.

CIMRM 44

Sol and Mithras fresco of Dura Europos

Sol watches Mithras as he gazes Mithras gazes up to heaven while sharing the sacred meal.

CIMRM 49

Tauroctony relief of Sidon

The tauroctony relief of Sidon depicts the signs of the zodiac and the four seasons, among other familiar features.

CIMRM 75

Main Tauroctony relief from Dura Europos

The main relief of Mithras killing the bull from the Mithraeum of Dura Europos includes three persons named Zenobius, Jariboles and Barnaadath.

CIMRM 40

See all Mithraic monuments in Syria-Coele

Brothers active in Syria-Coele

Zenobios
(170 – 171)

Flavius Gerontios
(389)

Mareinos
(212 – 217)

Iουλιανος
(169 – 256)

Kamerios
(c. 1st half of 3rd century)

Ethphani
(168)

Libeianos
(212 – 217)

Theodoros
(212 – 217)

Places in Syria-Coele

Commagene

Commagene was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia.

Doliche

Dülük is a village in Şehitkamil district, a district of Gaziantep, Turkey.

Dura Europos

Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman frontier city built on the Euphrates River. It was founded around 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator. The Romans took Dura-Europos in 165 AD.

Nemrut Dağı

Mount Nemrut or Nemrud is a 2,134-metre-high mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC.

Sidon

Alexander the Great seized Sidon from the Persians in 333 BC. It became a Roman colony during the reign of Elagabalus.

Zeugma

Zeugma was an ancient Hellenistic era Greek and then Roman city of Commagene; located in modern Gaziantep Province, Turkey.

See all Mithraic inscriptions from Syria-Coele

References