Mithras: This god is the center of an ancient Roman mystery religion, possibly descended from t
Mithras: This god is the center of an ancient Roman mystery religion, possibly descended from the worship of the Persian god Mithra. Given that his faith was a mystery cult, we don’t know a great deal about it. Romans documented that Mithraism was popular with soldiers and had a complex system of initiations. His rituals took place in underground temples, or mithraea.These rituals included feasting, were performed entirely or almost entirely by men, and seem to have involved reenactments of myths. One of these is the tauroctony, or the killing of the sacred white bull. Initiates may also have reenacted Mithras’s birth from a stone, feasting with the sun god, and his ascent to heaven.This one’s out of order, as I painted it a bit more recently, but I’m posting it now in response to a viewer request! This piece was commissioned for publication, but prints are available through my Etsy shop, linked in the header for this blog. -- source link
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