The New Mithraeum Database

Keiner der zahlreichen heidnischen Kulte und keine antike Religion hat das Christentum in einer Weise herausgefordert und geprägt, wie der römische Mysterienkult des Sonnen- und Erlösergottes Mithras.

Der römische Gott Mithras aus der Perspektive der vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte.

Often neglected or considered too transgressive, the Priapeia, with its blend of Roman and Hellenistic influences, offers a complex view of ancient customs, especially homosexuality, combining literary tradition with sociological insight.

The Mithraeum under and behind S. Prisca on the Aventine is without doubt the most important sanctuary of the Persian god in Rome.

It is only when the penis stands up straight, that it emits semen, the source of life. It is then called the phallus and has been considered, since earliest prehistory the image of the creative principle, a symbol of the process by which the Supreme

Wasson has aroused considerable attention by advancing and documenting the thesis that Soma was a hallucinogenic mushroom – none other than the Amanita muscaria, the fly-agaric that until recent times was the center of shamanic rites among the Siberian and Uralic tribesmen…

This magnificently illustrated publication renews the Mithraic dossier on the basis of concrete data, with caution and penetration. Marino's discovery is disconcerting and rekindles the controversy about the order in which bands should be read.

Anazarbus was an ancient Cilician city. Under the late Roman Empire, it was the capital of Cilicia Secunda.

Under Roman rule from the 1st century CE, Histria was incorporated into the province of Moesia. The city is noted on the Tabula Peutingeriana, which places it 11 miles from Tomis and 9 miles from Ad Stoma.

Dion Chrysostom, c. 100 A.D., a philosophical writer under the emperors Nerva and Trajan, composed a series of discourses or essays (λόγοι) on various subjects, in one of which he reports concerning the doctrines and practices of the magi.

The marble Aion from the lost Mithraeum Fagan, Ostia, now presides the entrance to the Vatican Library.

Figures in procession, each representing a different grade of Mithraic initiation, labeled with their respective titles.

This fresco, found in the Santa Capua Vetere Mithraeum, depicts what seems to be an initiate falling forward because someone is pressing down on his shoulders.

Franz Cumont considers the bas relief of Osterburken ’the most remarkable of all the monuments of the cult of Mithras found up to now’.

This relief is so well-known that it has been reproduced in nearly every handbook of archaeology and of history of religions.

This remarkable Greek marble relief of Mithras killing the bull was discovered in 1705 and remained in private collections until it was bought by the Louvre.

The Mithraeum of the Seven Spheres (Sette Sfere) is of great importance for the understanding of the cult, because of its black-and-white mosaics depicting the planets, the zodiac and related elements.

Found in Illmitz, Austria, in 1959, this altar was dedicated to the unconquered god Mithras by a certain Aelius Valerianus.

This sandstone altar found in Cologne bears an inscription to the goddess Semele and her sisters.

This marble altar was found ’in the street called di Branco’, behind the palace of the Cardinal of Bologna, in Rome.