The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries

This is the best currently available introduction to the Roman cult of Mithras you can read. It is completely up to date, lavishly illustrated, very well organized and written, and thoroughly engrossing from cover to cover.

Note I said, "the Roman cult" of Mithras. While Clauss respects the giants leaps of scholarship and knowledge represented by Franz Cumont's books (over 100 years back, but still available in reprints), he rejects the idea that the Roman god Mithras is a direct carry-over from the Persian Mitra, and is careful to distinguish clearly between the two early in the book. Instead, Clauss develops the idea that Mithras was essentially a purely Roman invention, in fact originating in the city of Rome itself, and carried out to the provinces by soldiers and government clerks, officials, and the like. He makes a convincing argument, so far as this reader is concerned.

While Clauss does mention the idea in passing, he is also not presenting Ulansey's 'star-map' argument over the meaning of the Mithras cult. Instead, Clauss' focus is centered on the general worship of an all-powerful Mithras, in league with/identified with/conjoined with Sol (the sun), with the myths of Mithras' birth, his attributes and function as the creator and sustainer of all life, his achievements and their symbolic significance. The major themes are systematically explained and so far as possible analyzed; the various personalities involved in the myths are discussed, and the general worship patterns covered.

Clauss does most of this through a close examination of the mithraea discovered around the Roman world. There are dozens and dozens of photos illustrating and illuminating his discussion; further illustrations show details, or implements, or variations in iconography as occurred around the Roman Empire and over the approximately 350 years or so of active worship. Finally, Clauss covers the comparison of Mithras worship to Christianity, the degree to which the worshippers of Mithras also included the worship of various Roman and Greek gods, and how finally the Christians suppressed and extinguished the cult of Mithras. Photos of dozens of sculptures, reliefs, and votive-reliefs show how statues were decapitated, defaced, destroyed, and temples ruined.

For those interested in a relatively short, but well well written book on the Roman aspects of Mithras worship, there is no better out there now. - Konrad Baumeister