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Mithras and Mithraism

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Have you seen the Virtual Mithraeum from Carrawburgh?Sorry WotWotius its a military Temple,i just thought it was worth a mention.

 

longbow

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Nice find , here's the actual remains:

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=656

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Nice pics Pertinax,i wonder how many initiates would be in the Temple during the rites.Presumably there would allso be a Bull in there with them,for the sacrifice.

 

L

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Have you seen the Virtual Mithraeum from Carrawburgh?Sorry WotWotius its a military Temple,i just thought it was worth a mention.

 

longbow

 

Thanks for the link, it was interesting to see the art in the Virtual Mithraeum.

Recently, I have had an A-level exam on Mithras worship in Britain, and for this I had to memorise the whole inscription on the ultor at Carrawburgh!

 

...please don't aske me to recall it.

Edited by WotWotius

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Nice pics Pertinax,i wonder how many initiates would be in the Temple during the rites.Presumably there would allso be a Bull in there with them,for the sacrifice.

 

L

Not much room eh? Deliberately so as well , the initiates must have felt very claustrophobic- ive thought about the rites long and hard, if you were buried alive (for a short while ) in this sort of space ," re-birth" into the world must have felt wonderful.What a contrast between the interior of the Temple and the wide open , wild spaces outside.

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Interesting,so Slaves could be included in the ranks,i wonder how that worked?

 

 

Mithraism was one of those universal cults where ethnic origin and social status did not automatically preclude someone from joining. However, it's very doubtful that the social rank of the outside world was completely forgotten within the private gatherings of a cult so dedicated to the Roman social order. I surmise that slaves could join, but they could never forget they were slaves.

 

But the slaves most likely to join the cult were no doubt the educated ones connected with the imperial civil service, who had some kind of status in Roman society (at least compared to the lowly sorts who worked the mines and estates).

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Two similar threads on Mithraism have been merged .... and I think this deserves to be pinned at top since it's the most compelling (if not exactly the most widespread) of the mystery cults of Late Antiquity.

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Does anybody have any information on the Mithraeum found in Leicester? I googled the words Leicester and Mithrea, and it was almost a google wack.

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Here's a interesting page.'the cosmic mysteries of Mithras.

 

The Mithraeum at Carrawburgh is obviously built above ground but wasnt the Temple supposed to be underground?to simulate the cave.

A underground Mithraeum,did the innitiates sacrifice the Bull in the Temple?i bet they had a right time of it getting a Bull down there if they did :D .

mithraeumrb8.th.jpg

 

L

Edited by longbow

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This is a very great website.

 

I am wondering about religious practice of Mithra. Did they have a weekly religious festival like the jewish sabbath. some have stated that Sunday worship among Christianity came in to the church through the Cult of Mithra. does anyone know if this is true.

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