Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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This crucial and oft-cited passage quotes Pallas now lost work
on Mithras and refers to the animals used to symbolize members
and their roles in the Mithraic community. Scholarly opinion on the
manuscript tradition for De Abstinentia has undergone a volte face:
Vaticanus gr. 325 is now generally accepted as the archetype for all
extant manuscripts,10 and thus the definite reading anaw (hyenas)
Toynbee 1955:108 dismisses out of hand both this reference and that in Porphyry.
David 2000:127 accepts the evidence from both Porphyry and Tertullian, arguing
that in combination with the Oea tomb it may point specifically to a North
African variant of Mithraism in which women were involved, as Tertullians exempla are generally African.
9 Translation by G. Clark, Porphyry On Abstinence from Killing Animals,
London 2000. For a discussion of the lacunae, see 188, n. 637.
10 In the first volume of the Bud edition (1977) J. Bouffartigue and M. Patillon
postulated a lost archetype from which two manuscript traditions descended: the
Vatican manuscript (V) and another lost manuscript (C). In the third volume
8
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Statues of goddesses and mother goddesses in mithraea. Representations of and dedications to goddesses in mithraea were common,25 although there has never been any reason to suppose that
their presence attests the devotion of women exclusively. In particular, several statues representing female figures have been recovered from mithraea in the European provinces,26 and whereas David
K.K. Central-Commission fr Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale 12 (1867)
11932 at 12324 and fig. 2. The excavator was uncertain as to whether these had
been used to frame the entrance or as waterspouts.
25 A cursory review only of Vermaserens catalogue indices and not of any
material found subsequently, for example, indicates representations of or dedications to various goddesses. Juno was most often represented or received a dedication as part of the Capitoline triad (V 328/9, 1199, and 1208) or as part of an
assembly of gods (V 140, 1430,C1 and possibly 2340,3 and V 1284, a base from
Neuenheim with relief representations of Hercules, Minerva and Mercury).
Minerva often appears with Juno (V 140, 328/9, 1284, 1430,C1 and 2340,4) or
with other male deities in a Mithraic context (V 291, a krater with Minerva,
Jupiter, Dionysus and Hercules, V 1318, a relief with Minerva and Vulcan, and V
1382/3, a group of six bronze hatchets dedicated to Jupiter, Neptune, Minerva,
Mercury, Matrona and the Matres), or even individually (V 441 from the Forum
Boarium mithraeum in Rome, V 1086 from the Nida mithraeum and V 1260 at
Dieburg [see n. 26 below]). She is also represented on one of the many reliefs
from Stockstadt mithraeum I (V 1183) and with other male deities on the tauroctony relief from Biljanovac in Moesia Superior (V 2202,3). See also V 931, a
group of statuettes, among them Minerva, from Les Bolards but not necessarily to
be associated with a mithraeum. Although less represented, Diana appears in her
association with Luna as a tutelary planet of the fifth Mithraic grade, Perses, at
the mithraeum of the Seven Spheres in Ostia (V 241,1), with the other deities represented in relief in mithraeum I at Stockstadt (V 1184), and in the assembly of
gods on the Osterburken relief (V 1292,1).
26 As noted in the entry to V 850 and in Richmond and Gillam 1951:30 n. 32:
these include a relief of Epona from Heddernheim (V 1094); a relief of Epona
from Stockstadt I (V 1188); hatchets dedicated to various gods (see n. 25 above)
including to the Matronae and the Matres (V 1382/3); an altar dedicated to the
Matronae (V 1066) and another to the Deae Quadruviae (V 1067) at Friedberg,
and the lower part of a relief featuring a goddess and dedicated to Dea
Sancta . . . (V 1138/9), and also from Dieburg, part of a statue of a woman clad
in a tunic and mantle and possibly to be identified as Minerva (F. Behn, Das
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argued that a mother and child group from the Dieburg mithraeum
and a statuette of a seated woman from the Carrawburgh
mithraeum27 were portraits of benefactors, both figures are universally interpreted as Celtic goddesses whose style, iconography, pose
and attributes are present in numerous other examples of such goddesses.28 The statuette from Dieburg is a traditional Dea Nutrix
type representing a woman seated on a throne and nursing a swaddled infant at her left breast29 and exhibiting stylistic devices common to Celtic religious art including disproportionately large heads
(emphasis by exaggeration) and schematisation of facial features in
order to highlight the action of nursing.30 The Carrawburgh statuette is seated and holds a basket (symbolizing prosperity) or water
vessel (symbolizing fertility) in her lap. The rather heavy-set body
lacks naturalistic proportions and volumes and the facial features
are even more schematised than those of the Dieburg statuette.31
Mithrasheiligtum zu Dieburg, Berlin 1928, 3435 and fig. 37; V 1260) as well as
a statue bust in high relief of a woman wearing a diadem, possibly to be identified
as Juno (Behn 1928:35 fig. 38; V 1261). Excluded is the dedication to several
deities including Epona and the Matronae (V 1094) from Allmendingen, cited both
by Richmond and Gillam and by Vermaseren, because it is not definitely from a
Mithraic context.
27 David 2000:126. Dieburg: Behn 1928:35, no. 14 and fig. 39. H 23 cm.
V 1262 and Carrawburgh: I.A. Richmond and J.P. Gillam, The Temple of Mithras
at Carrawburgh, Newcastle 1951, 30 and pl. Xa. H 40 cm. V 850.
28 M. Green, Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art, London 1989; and The
Gods of the Celts, Gloucester 1986; S. Barnard, The Matres of Roman Britain,
Archaeological Journal 142 (1985) 240; A. Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, London
1967; G. Schauerte, Darstellungen mtterlicher Gottheiten in den rmischen
Nordwestprovinzen, in G. Bauchhen and G. Neumann (eds.), Matronen und verwandte Gottheiten (Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbcher 44), Cologne 1987, 54102.
29 Green 1989:3032; Schauerte 1987:7981 and 96.
30 M. Green 1986:203216.
31 Richmond and Gillam 1951:30 note also that the figure is more weathered
than other statuary in the mithraeum, suggesting that the statue was brought from
elsewhere for reuse.
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Empire, New Haven 1981, 101, n. 31. All those he cites are addressed herein
except three. First, V 177 = CIL X.1591 (2470), a dedication to Sol Invictus and
the Genius of the Colonia by Cl(audius) Aurel(ius) Rufinus and his wife, now in
Pozzuoli but of unknown provenance. Similarly, V 1952 = CIL III.1118 (which
Macmullen and Vermaseren doubt) also a dedication to Sol by a husband, wife
and son of unknown provenience from Mures-Port (Dacia). Finally, V 2064/65 =
CIL III.7938, a single incomplete name Terentia . . . inscribed on a tauroctony
scene from the Sarmizegetusa mithraeum. Vermaseren suggested Terentia[nus].
36 CIL XIII 7958/9 = V 1034 = E. Schwertheim, Die Denkmler Orientalischer
Gottheiten im Rmischen Deutschland (EPRO 40), Leiden 1974, no. 41.
37 F. Hettner, Katalog des kniglichen rheinischen Museums vaterlndischer
Alterthmer bei der Universitt Bonn, Bonn 1876, 2526 no. 71.
38 I am grateful to Richard Gordon for allowing me to read and refer to an
unpublished manuscript in which he resolves all these difficulties by reconstructing the name of a man in the last two lines: Iustini(us) Patern(i)a(n)u[s or
Iustini(us) Patern{a}(us) v[et(eranus).
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Three controversial points are of particular interest here: the identity of Dominus Aeternus, the dedication by a freedwoman Cascelia
Elegans (albeit through a male patron Primus), and the possibility
that this dedication was not originally located in the mithraeum.
The epithet Dominus Aeternus is unparalleled, and not even Deus
Aeternus has been specifically connected with Mithras. Although a
conflation of Sol-Aion-Mithras has been proposed,40 this anomalous
altar is more plausibly accounted for as one of several dedications to deities other than Mithras introduced into the mithraeum
from elsewhere in the camp in the late 3rd-century phase of the
sanctuary.41
The supposed dedication to Mithras from Emona in Pannonia
Superior by a woman named Blastia is also doubtful.42 The current
location and original provenance of the altar are unknown; the text
is based on an older, unconfirmed transcription: D(eo) I(nvicto)
M(ithrae) | Silvano Augusto | Sac Blastia | c(. . .) e(. . .) b(. . .).43
There are reasons to doubt the transcription. The name Blastia is
otherwise unattested in comparison to the more common Blaste and
male Blastus and Blastion. The amalgamation of Mithras and
Silvanus is anomalous, as is an asyndetic dedication to both deities.
Since epitaphs make up the majority of inscriptions in Pannonia
and other parts of the Empire and are notorious for the wide variation in letter quality, it is entirely possible that the noted anomalies are in fact improperly transcribed words. Peter Dorceys omission
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of this inscription may be understood as confirmation of its unreliability. 44 He demonstrates that Silvanus epithets were almost
entirely Latin or Greek and that he was a sign of Romanization in
the provinces of the Danube and the Balkans. He further shows
that Silvanus was rarely associated with imported deities such as
Isis, Serapis, Jupiter Sabazius, Jupiter Hammon, Sol or Jupiter
Dolichenus, and that his only connection to Magna Mater was
through the epithet dendrophorus. Finally, he argues that use of the
epithet invictus is too general to be regarded as Mithraic and that
the presence of a limited number of representations of Silvanus in
mithraea at Ostia, Rome, Ptuj and Budapest does not substantiate
a conflation of the deities or cults.45 Given these many limitations,
it is impossible to regard this dedication as sound evidence of a
dedication to Mithras by a woman.
Several other dedications commonly cited in connection with women
and the Mithraic cult are also doubtful. First, a relief of Aion now
in Modena but possibly from Rome, is almost certainly Mithraic
Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion, New
York 1992, 83.
45 Dorcey 1992. Roman deity: 6881; not associated with imported deities: 31,
82; association with Pan, Nymphs, Diana in Dalmatia: 6971; invictus not a
Mithraic reference: 823 and nn. 17879. V 502 (Rome) is probably a dedication
to Sol Invictus (Clauss 1992:17 n. 2 contra Clauss 1990:3). V 565 = CIL VI.590;
30799 is a dedication of unknown provenience to Silvanus alone. The examples
from Ostia, although found in mithraea (V 276: Mithraeum of the Footprint and
V 283 = CIL 14.53: Mithraeum of the Animals near the temple of Magna Mater)
are dedications to Silvanus alone. Even the mosaic of Silvanus from the
mithraeum in the so-called palazzo imperiale makes no reference to Mithras.
The relief fragment from the Poetovio III mithraeum (V 1604) may show the
lower half of Silvanus and his dog, but there is no indication that Mithras was
also represented. The relief showing Silvanus from Aquincum (V 1764) was
reportedly found near but not in Aquincum 3. The lack of any trace of a shrine
to Silvanus within the S. Stefano Rotondo mithraeum has led the excavators to
conclude that the dedication to him recovered from the mithraeum was introduced
into it from elsewhere in the last phase (Panciera 1989:9597, and Lissi-Caronna
1987:4344).
44
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Euphrosynus and Felix placed (this altar). Felix pater. Clauss 1992:47
n. 5. Compare R. Merkelbach, Mithras, Knigstein 1984, 324: Euprhrosy/n[us] et
Felix/ p(ecunia sua) p(osuit) and Vermaseren (V 695/6): Euphrosy/[n]e et Felix.
p(ecunia) p(osuit)/ Felix pater to be translated Euphrosynus (or Euphrosyne) and
Felix. Felix pater placed (this altar) with his own money.
47 V 883 To the god A C T C/ Faustus and Modesta fulfill (their) vow gladly
and deservedly. C. Jullian, Notes Gallo-Romaines: XLIX Un Faux Mithraeum
dans les Pyrnes, Revue des tudes Anciennes 13 (1911) 7980 examined the
inscription and concluded that the letters were recut in the modern era following
traces of the original inscription. See also Clauss 1992:288 and V.J. Walters, The
Cult of Mithras in the Roman Provinces of Gaul (EPRO 41), Leiden 1974,
14243.
48 To Deus (Invictus) Mithras, Varia Severa, daughter of Quintus, willingly and
deservedly fulfilled her vow. V 705 = CIL 5.5659. Not referred to in Clauss
1992.
49 Dedications to the Great Idaean Mother of the Gods are particularly common
from 4th-century Roman senators. See M.J. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae
Attidisque vols. 17 (EPRO 50.17), Leiden 19771989 (hereafter CCCA) vol. 3
nos. 22144 and V 513515 and 520 but for references to the Mother of the Gods
46
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CCCA 3 no. 404 = CIL XIV.37 = ILS 4114. Despite the title pater,
Q. Domitius Aterianus was excluded from Vermaserens Mithraic catalogue and
Clauss list of Mithraists.
54 CIL XIII.8244 = ILS 3384.
55 V 1027.
56 Schwertheim 1974:257. Seranius Catullus is not included in Clauss 1992.
57 B. and H. Galsterer, Die rmischen Steininschriften aus Kln, Cologne 1975,
38, no. 134.
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and validation.59 This he tested on the Mithraic grades by elaborating on the associations and symbolic meanings of the animal grade
names (leo/lion and corax/raven) and their tutelary planets from
ancient lore, or a notional Graeco-Roman encyclopaedia of
information culled by him from a range of texts. In this way, he
suggested, factual knowledge of a selected kind . . . may help us
to glimpse connections between a number of disparate items of
Mithraic evidence which cannot be linked without an appeal to
such knowledge.60 The idea of a constructed, alternate Mithraic
reality is widely accepted and investigation of its meanings is an
ongoing endeavour. Even more tenacious is Gordons conclusion
that women were utterly absent from Mithraic reality,61 and that
this absence was not just a fact, or even a coincidental by-product
arising from the selection of a model institution (e.g. collegia) for
structure, but a conscious choice that defined both the Mysteries
and one of its core tenets, ultimate separation (from this world) implied
by the process of genesis and apogenesis.62 In Gordons view the
names of the grades emphasized . . . the exclusion or suppression
of the female or the feminine, either linguistically or socially, so
succinctly expressed by Porphyrys hyenas.63
The term hyena for women strikes modern and ancient readers as highly uncomplimentary, although the ancient belief that
hyenas could change sex and the consequential suitability of this
animal as a grade name for women in the Mithraic cult has been
duly noted.64 Gordon argued that the ancient cultural significance
of hyenas, that is their stereotypical image as sex-changing, carrion-eating beasts that suffocated their victims and had an uncan-
Gordon 1980:2224.
Gordon 1980:28.
61 So also Clauss 1990 (Gordon 2000:33): This was a cult in which the female
principle played no rle, either on the divine or on the human level . . .
62 Gordon 1980:4243.
63 Gordon 1980:44.
64 Gordon 1980:5861; G. Clark 2000:188 n. 637, and David 2000:135.
59
60
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Gordon 1980:5960.
Gordon 1980:61.
Gordon 1980:5758.
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does matter. If hyena were merely a label for something so dangerous that it had no presence in the cult, as Gordon argued, surely
it would be last and not sandwiched between full cult members
(lions) and servants ranked at the lowest grade raven, who did have
a role in cult rituals and activities. If Gordons conclusion that this
is nothing more than a value judgement on women is unsatisfactory, the only other option is to take Porphyry literally and speculate that women participated in the cult as hyenas (whereas men
moved through the seven grades), as is attested by the very fact
that they are referred to explicitly, assigned a role, and mentioned
in the context of other legitimate roles: lions (initiates) and ravens
(servants). Speculation can go no further; no other physical evidence corroborates this (possible) role for women. Neither explanation for Porphyrys hyenas is completely satisfactory, which only
underscores the extent to which a single piece of evidence can substantially alter our view of the past without actually clarifying it.
Mithraisms rich visual symbolism must also be considered. In
Gordons view the iconography confirmed the supremacy of the
male and the male principle, but a re-evaluation of this imagery
with rather broader notions of gender is appropriate here. For in
point of fact, while many symbols central to the Mithraic cult may
be regarded as gender ambiguous, and could thus be interpreted as
substantiating the dominance of male over female, others have
strong female associations and thus express a carefully balanced
tension of malefemale opposition. Let us begin with the main Mithraic
cult image, a scene of tauroctony that illustrates a pivotal moment
in which Mithras sacrifices a bull amidst a collection of human,
divine and animal figures. None of these is merely what it appears
to be superficially; rather all are symbols of planets, of constellations, or of the various grades in the cult hierarchy.68 Most interesting for our purposes are elements representing and symbolizing
Extensive discussion about the meaning of the symbols, individually and as
an aggregate whole is summarised and referenced in R. Beck, Mithraism since
Franz Cumont, Aufstieg und Niedergang der Rmischen Welt 17.4 (1984) 20022112.
68
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the earth and water, all of which were associated with the feminine
in most ancient cultures in the Mediterranean region. Luna, the
tutelary planet of the fourth Mithraic grade, Perses, is shown personified as a woman with a crescent headdress and often driving a biga drawn by oxen. The planet Venus, which is associated
with the second Mithraic grade nymphus, is represented by a snake.
Both these deities also amply connote regeneration through
extended associations. As the moon Luna affects the menstrual
cycle and tides and is thus associated with moisture. Venus, the
archetype of feminine beauty, is associated with sexual intercourse
and with the perennial reproductive capacity of the earth, as is represented by the snakes shed skin. The tauroctony scene has also
been identified as a tableau of constellations, and in particular
those on or near the celestial equator at the vernal equinox.69 Here
one may further connect the snake to the constellation Hydra, and
the uterine-shaped krater (often shown overturned and with water
spilling out) to its celestial counterpart, Krater. Cautopates of the
lowered torch represents not only autumn, but also the onset of evening
and the appearance of Venus, while Cautes of the raised torch symbolizes dawn as well as the arrival of spring and new growth.
Venus liminal role is reflected in her two names, Phosphoros/
Lucifer (light-bringer) and Hesperos (Evening).70
Let us explore some of the implications of the symbolic meaning of the tutelary planets. Gordon argued that Venus liminal
aspect and strong association with the transition from light to dark
and vice versa makes her an ambiguous and two-faced figure. Her
association with the grade nymphus is thus apposite since, as
Gordon reminds us, a nymphus (male nymph) exists only conceptually.
See also Merkelbach 1984; R. Beck, Planetary Gods and Planetary Orders in the
Mysteries of Mithras (EPRO 9), Leiden 1988; and D. Ulansey, The Origins of the
Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, Oxford 1989.
69 See K.B. Stark, Die Mithrasstein von Dormagen, Jahrbcher des Vereins
von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande 46 (1869) 125, and n. 68 above.
70 Gordon 1980:49.
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71
72
Gordon 1980:48.
Gordon 1980:49.
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to that of the male, but quite the opposite. Marriage was the beginning of a key role for women in society as bearers and raisers of
children; far from subordinating female sexuality, its consummation
unleashed it.
Let us consider now the bull sacrifice and its setting. The main
action takes place in a cave, often represented in Mithraic art by
an arched area over Mithras and the bull, or by attempts to produce a rough rocky surface in stone or in paint. In his De Antro
Nympharum Porphyry asserts that the cave represents the cosmos
because, as it was believed, the moist, humid dimness of caves
symbolized the formless state of flux associated with matter. The
cosmos is misty and dim because of the matter of which it is made,
but also beautiful because it gives form and order to matter. Thus,
Porphyry explains, a cave is pleasing for its form but at the same
time it is a place of murky and obscure depths.77 Since caves are
hollows in the earth created and sustained by springs, they were
thus also associated with nymphs as well as with the cosmos in
antiquity. Mithraic sanctuaries were intentionally cave-like and
were almost always provided with a source of water or located
near one. Symbolically, then, the waters of life flowed in and from
a cave/cosmos representing matter, and more importantly the
ordered and connected form of which living things consist. Within
the cave occurs Mithras struggle with the bull. The resulting
sacrifice is a necessary one it must happen in order to produce
plant and animal life. Iconographically, then, the tail of bull metamorphosizes into wheat ears, while the dog laps eagerly at the
blood emerging from the wound. The scorpion seems ineluctably
attracted to the life-producing testicles, whose semen it will unloose with its pincers to spill on the earth. As before, we are looking at constellations of the vernal equinox, the threshold of spring:
the wheat ears are Spica, the dog is Canis Major, the scorpion is
Scorpio, the raven Corvus, the snake Hydra, the bull Taurus, and
77
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Catal Hyk and the use of the horns and skull of the bull as a determinative in
hieroglyphic writing.
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child-bearing has not been denied, or even usurped, it just does not
figure in the creation myth of the cult.
The visual expression of the sacrificial act of creation in the tauroctony scene is thus achieved through identifiable figures, which
upon examination are seen to be abstracted representations in a
highly dualistic setting of multiple meanings and interpretations. It
is hardly surprising, given the fundamental subject of creation, that
many of the elements the cave, the bull, Luna, the krater, and
snake have strong female associations. Although the moment of
creation the sacrifice of the bull may be sexless, adherents
of Mithraism lived in a world of procreation by sex and in which
there were women. It therefore does not stand to reason that a cult
that completely denied the existence of women so as to create a
cosmos through the deliberate rejection of the realities of the
world could become as popular as Mithraism was in its time. If
religions offer an alternate world, as Gordon has argued, they must
meet the challenge of validating that world by reference back
to the real world in order to attract followers.82 What is more,
their credibility also depends on their ability to address the mundane needs of their followers. So, far from constituting a complete
rejection of women in a world of sexless generation utterly devoid
of women and in which the female principle is subordinated to that
of the male, the highly engendered iconography of the tauroctony
scene facilitated validation of the Mithraic world by reference to
the real world. In such an alternate world, one in which souls move
between the celestial and the earthly spheres in genesis and apogenesis, questions of sex and gender lose their meaning. Lack of
direct reference to women and to heterosexual procreation does not
in our view indicate the complete subordination of the female principle in favour of that of the male. In the Mithraic world life is
generated and the souls, which contain its essence, enter and leave
corporeality in a cosmos that gives form to matter. As shown in
82
Gordon 1980:2223.
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