The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism Part 19

[Greek: Xenas de thusias ethuon autoi tas en Olumpoi kai teletas tinas aporretous eteloun, on he tou Mithrou kai mechri deuro diasozetai katadeichtheisa proton hup' ekeinon].

15. Lactantius Placidus ad Stat., _Theb._ IV, 717: "Quae sacra primum Persae habuerunt, a Persis Phryges, a Phrygibus Romani."

16. In the _Studio Pontica_, p. 368, I have described a grotto located near Trapezus and formerly dedicated to Mithra, but now transformed into a church. We know of no other Mithreum. A bilingual dedication to Mithra, in Greek and Aramaic, is engraved upon a rock in a wild pa.s.s near Farasha (Rhodandos) in Cappadocia. Recently it has been republished {263} with excellent notes by Henri Gregoire (_Comptes Rendus Acad. des Inscr._, 1908, pp. 434 ff.), but the commentator has mentioned no trace of a temple. The text says that a strategus from Ariaramneia [Greek: emageuse Mithrei].

Perhaps these words must be translated according to a frequent meaning of the aorist, by "became a magus of Mithra" or "began to serve Mithra as a magus." This would lead to the conclusion that the inscription was made on the occasion of an initiation. The magus dignity was originally hereditary in the sacred caste; strangers could acquire it after the cult had a.s.sumed the form of mysteries. If the interpretation offered by us is correct the Cappadocian inscription would furnish interesting evidence of that transformation in the Orient. Moreover, we know that Tiridates of Armenia initiated Nero; see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 239.

17. Strabo, XI, 14, -- 9. On the studs of Cappadocia, cf. Gregoire, _Saints jumeaux et dieux cavaliers_, 1905, pp. 56 ff.

18. Cf. _C. R. Acad. des Inscr._, 1905, pp. 99 ff. (note on the bilingual inscription of Aghatcha-Kale); cf. Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier, _Dict.

Antiqu._, s. v. "Satrapa."

19. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 10, n. 1. The argument undoubtedly dates back to Carneades, see Boll, _Studien uber Claudius Ptolemaus_, 1894, pp.

181 ff.

20. Louis H. Gray (_Archiv fur Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, p. 345) has shown how these six Amshaspands pa.s.sed from being divinities of the material world to the rank of moral abstractions. From an important text of Plutarch it appears that they already had this quality in Cappadocia; cf.

_Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p. 33, and Philo, _Quod omn. prob. lib._, 11 (II, 456 M).--On Persian G.o.ds worshiped in Cappadocia, see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 132.

21. See _supra_, n. 16 and 18.--According to Gregoire, the bilingual inscription of Farasha dates back to the first century, before or after Christ (_loc. cit._, p. 445).

22. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 9, n. 5.

23. Comparison of the type of Jupiter Dolichenus with the bas-reliefs of Boghaz-Keui led Kan (_De Iovis Dolicheni cultu_, Groningen, 1901, pp. 3 ff.) to see an Anatolian G.o.d in him. {264} The comparison of the formula _ubi ferrum nascitur_ with the expression [Greek: hopou ho sideros tiktetai], used in connection with the Chalybians, leads to the same conclusion, see _Revue de philologie_, XXVI, 1902, p. 281.--Still, the representations of Jupiter Dolichnus also possess a remarkable resemblance to those of the Babylonian G.o.d Ramman; cf. Jeremias in Roscher, _Lexikon der Myth._, s. v. "Ramman," IV, col. 50 ff.

24. _Rev. archeol._ 1905, I, p. 189. Cf. _supra_, p. 127, n. 68.

25. Herod., I, 131.--On the a.s.similation of Baalsamin to Ahura-Mazda, cf.

_supra_, p. 127, and _infra_, n. 29. At Rome, Jupiter Dolichenus was _conservator totius poli et numen praestantissimum_ (_CIL_, VI, 406 = 30758).

26. Inscription of King Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, _Recueil_, No.

735), l. 43:

[Greek: Pros ouranious Dios oromasdou thronous theophile psuchen propempsan]; cf. l. 33: [Greek: Ouranion anchista thronon].

27. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 87.

28. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 333.--An inscription discovered in a mithreum at Dorstadt (Sacidava in Dacia, _CIL_, III, 7728, cf. 7729), furnishes, if I rightly understand, another proof of the relation existing between the Semitic cults and that of the Persian G.o.ds. It speaks of a "de[orum?] sacerdos creatus a Pal[myr]enis, do[mo] Macedonia, et adven[tor]

huius templi." This rather obscure text becomes clear when compared with Apul., _Metam._, XI, 26. After the hero had been initiated into the mysteries of Isis in Greece, he was received at Rome in the great temple of the Campus Martius, "fani quidem advena, religionis autem indigena." It appears also that this Macedonian, who was made a priest of their national G.o.ds (Bel, Malakbel, etc.) by a colony of Palmyrenians, was received in Dacia by the mystics of Mithra as a member of their religion.

29. At Venasa in Cappadocia, for instance, the people, even during the Christian period, celebrated a panegyric on a mountain, where the celestial Zeus, representing Baalsamin and Ahura-Mazda, was formerly worshiped (Ramsay, _Church in the Roman Empire_, 1894, pp. 142, 457). The identification of Bel with Ahura-Mazda in Cappadocia results from the Aramaic inscription of Jarpuz (Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil_, III, {265} p.

59; Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris fur semit. Epigraphik_, I, pp. 59 ff.). The Zeus Stratios worshiped upon a high summit near Amasia was in reality Ahura-Mazda, who in turn probably supplanted some local G.o.d (_Studia Pontica_, pp. 173 ff.).--Similarly the equation Anahita = Ishtar = Ma or Cybele for the great female divinity is accepted everywhere (_Mon. myst.

Mithra_, I, p. 333), and Ma takes the epithet [Greek: aniketos] like Mithra (_Athen. Mitt._, XVIII, 1893, p. 415, and XXIX, 1904, p. 169). A temple of this G.o.ddess was called [Greek: hieron Astartes] in a decree of Anisa (Michel, _Recueil_, No. 536, l. 32).

30. The Mithra "mysteries" are not of h.e.l.lenic origin (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 239), but their resemblance to those of Greece, which Gruppe insists upon (_Griech. Mythologie_, pp. 1596 ff.) was such that the two were bound to become confused in the Alexandrian period.

31. Harnack (_Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, p. 271) sees in this exclusion of the h.e.l.lenic world a prime cause of the weakness of the Mithra worship in its struggle against Christianity. The mysteries of Mithra met the Greek culture with the culture of Persia, superior in some respects.

But if it was capable of attracting the Roman mind by its moral qualities, it was too Asiatic, on the whole, to be accepted without repugnance by the Occidentals. The same was true of Manicheism.

32. _CIL_, III, 4413; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 281.

33. Cf. the bibliography at the head of the notes for this chapter.

34. As Plato grew older he believed that he could not explain the evils of this world without admitting the existence of an "evil soul of the world"

(Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, II, p. 973, p. 981, n. 1). But this late conception, opposed as it is to his entire system, is probably due to the influence of Oriental dualism. It is found in the Epinomis (Zeller, _ibid._, p. 1042, n. 4), where the influence of "Chaldean" theories is undeniable; cf. Bidez, _Revue de Philologie_, XXIX, 1905, p. 319.

35. Plutarch, _De Iside_, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, V, p.

188; Eisele, _Zur Demonologie des Plutarch_ (_Archiv fur Gesch. der Philos._, XVII), 1903, p. 283 f.--Cf. _infra_, n. 40. {266}

36. Arn.o.bius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some exact information on the doctrines of the magi, says (IV, 12, p. 150, 12, Reifferscheid): "Magi suis in accitionibus memorant ant.i.theos saepius obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam materiis ex cra.s.sioribus spiritus qui deos se fingant, nesciosque mendaciis et simulationibus ludant." Lactantius, the pupil of Arn.o.bius, used the same word in speaking of Satan that a Mazdean would have used in referring to Ahriman (_Inst.

divin._, II, 9, 13, p. 144, 13, Brandt): "Nox quam pravo illi ant.i.theo dicimus attributam"; he is the _aemulus Dei_.--Heliodorus who has made use in his _Aethiopica_ of data taken from the Mazdean beliefs (see _Monuments relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra_, volume I, p. 336, n. 2) uses the Greek word in the same sense, (IV, 7, p. 105, 27, Bekker ed.): [Greek: Ant.i.theos tis eoiken empodizein ten praxin].--The Ps.-Iamblichus, _De myster._, III, 31, -- 15, likewise speaks of [Greek: daimones ponerous hous de kai kalousin ant.i.theous]. Finally the magical papyri also knew of the existence of these deceiving spirits (Wessely, _Denksch. Akad. Wien_, XLII, p. 42, v. 702: [Greek: Pempson moi ton alethinon Asklepion dicha tinos ant.i.theou planodaimonos]).

37. In a pa.s.sage to which we shall return in note 39, Porphyry (_De Abstin._, II, 42), speaks of the demons in almost the same terms as Arn.o.bius: [Greek: To gar pseudos toutois hoikeion; Boulontai gar einai theoi kai he proestosa auton dunamis dokein theos einai ho megistos] (cf.

c. 41: [Greek: Toutous kai ton proestota auton]); likewise Ps.-Iamblichus, _De myst._, III, 30, 6: [Greek: Ton megan hegemona ton daimonon].--In the _De philos. ex orac. haur._ (pp. 147 ff. Wolff), an early work in which he followed other sources than those in _De Abstinentia_, Porphyry made Serapis (= Pluto) the chief of the malevolent demons. There was bound to be a connection between the Egyptian G.o.d of the underworld and the Ahriman of the Persians at an early date.--A veiled allusion to this chief of demons may be contained in Lucan, VI, 742 ff., and Plutarch who, in _De Iside_, 46, called Ahriman Hades (_supra_, p. 190; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p.

131, No. 3), says elsewhere (_De latenter viv._, 6, p. 1130): [Greek: Ton de tes enantias kurion moiras, eite theos eite daimon estin, Aiden onomazousin]. Cf. Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_, 1904, p. 431, n. 1.

38. The dedication _Diis angelis_ recently found at {267} Viminacium (_Jahresh. Inst.i.tuts in Wien_, 1905, Beiblatt, p. 6), in a country where the Mithra worship had spread considerably seems to me to refer to this.

See Minuc. Felix, _Octav._, 26: "Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus Hostanes angelos, id est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit a.s.sistere." St. Cypr., "Quod idola dii n. s.," c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel): "Ostanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros sedi eius dicit adsistere." Cf. Tertullian, _Apol._, XXIII: "Magi habentes invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem;" Arn.o.bius, II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid); Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9, and the texts collected by Wolff, _Porphyrii de philos. ex orac. haurienda_, 1856, pp.

223 ff.; Kroll, _De orac. Chaldacis_, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, _Die Hebdomadenlehre der griech. Philosophen_, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt, _Apuleius und die Zauberei_, Giessen, 1909, p. 256.

39. Porphyry, _De Abstin._, II, 37-43, expounds a theory about the demons, which, he says, he took from "certain Platonists" ([Greek: Platonikoi tines], Numenius and Cronius?). That these authors, whoever they were, helped themselves freely to the doctrines of the magi, seems to appear immediately from the whole of Porphyry's exposition (one could almost give an endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean books) and in particular from the mention that is made of a power commanding the spirits of evil (see _supra_, n. 37). This conclusion is confirmed by a comparison with the pa.s.sage of Arn.o.bius cited above (n. 36), who attributes similar theories to the "magi," and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (_De mysteriis_, III, 31) which develops a.n.a.logous beliefs as being those of "Chaldean prophets."--Porphyry also cites a "Chaldean" theologian in connection with the influence of the demons, _De regressu animae_ (Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9).

I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the book attributed to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the second century of our era by Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian (_supra_, n. 38), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p.

138; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false logic to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic theories of the Greeks (see for instance the communications of Messrs. Stock and Glover: _Transactions of the Congress of {268} History of Rel._, Oxford, 1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence of the popular h.e.l.lenic or foreign ideas has always been preponderant here; and the Epinomis, which contains one of the oldest accounts of the theory of demons, as proved _supra_, n.

34, was influenced by the Semitic notions about genii, the ancestors of the _djinns_ and the _welys_ of Islam.

If, as we believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the theology of the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based on popular beliefs of the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, we shall be able to draw interesting conclusions in regard to the mysteries of Mithra. For instance, one of the principles developed is that the G.o.ds must not be honored by the sacrifice of animated beings ([Greek: empsucha]), and that immolation of victims should be reserved for the demons. The same idea is found in Cornelius Labeo, (Aug., _Civ. Dei_, VIII, 13; see Arn.o.bius, VII, 24), and possibly it was the practice of the Mithra cult. Porphyry (II, 36) speaks in this connection of rites and mysteries, but without divulging them, and it is known that in the course of its history Mazdaism pa.s.sed from the b.l.o.o.d.y to the bloodless sacrifice (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 6).

40. Cf. Plutarch, _De defectu orac._, 10, p. 415 A:

[Greek: Emoi de dokousi pleionas lusai aporias hoi to ton daimonon genos en mesoi thentes theon kai anthropon kai tropon tina ten koinonian hemon sunagon eis tauto kai sunapton exeurontes; eite magon ton peri Zoroastren ho logos outos esti, eite Thraikios]....

41. Cf. Minucius Felix, 26, -- 11: "Hostanes daemonas prodidit terrenos vagos humanitatis inimicos." The pagan idea, that the air was peopled with evil spirits against whom man had to struggle perpetually, persisted among the Christians; cf. Ephes., ii. 2, vi. 12, see also Prudentius, _Hamartigenia_, 514 ff.

42. Cf. Minucius Felix, _loc. cit._: "Magi non solum sciunt daemonas, sed quidquid miraculi ludunt, per daemonas faciunt," etc. Cf. Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9 and _infra_, ch. VII, n. 76.

43. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 139 ff.

44. Theod. Mopsuest. ap. Photius, _Bibl._ 81. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 8. {269}

45. Cf. Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter_, 1903, pp. 483 ff.

46. Julian, _Caesares_, p. 336 C. The term [Greek: entolai] is the one also used in the Greek Church for the commandments of the Lord.

47. Cf. _supra_, p. 36.

48. The remark is from Darmesteter, _Zend-Avesta_, II, p. 441.

49. Cf. Reinach, _op. cit._, [260], pp. 230 ff.