Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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THE GENIUS OF MITHRAISM
Since Sir Henry Stuart Jones has included Mithraism among his
many interests, 1 it seems appropriate to offer to him on this occasion
some remarks on its general significance. No phcnomenon in Imperial
paganism has attracted as much attention, and this is natural.
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THE GENIUS OF MITHRAISM lO9
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110 ARTHUR DARBY NOCK
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THE GENIUS OF MITHRAISM I I I
2 0 Cl. Nock, Conversion, 38 ff., 56 ff. 23 At the same time we must distinguish between
21 M. P. Nilsson, Deutsche Literaturzeitung, Mithraism as a religion on the one hand and the
1933, col. 253, has pointed to the attractive power literary dissemination of Iranian ideas on the other -
of Mithraic cosmogony. I hope to return to this topic elsewhere.
22 C/. Nock, in Gnosnon xii (1936), 6Io if.
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I112 ARTHUR DARBY NOCK
24 On this epithet L. Berlinger, Beitrage zur ro6, on the term 'Kepatot, as applied to initiates at
inoj/iziellen Titulatur der rdnmischen Kaiser (Diss. Dura.
Breslau, i935), zo ff., has some very valuable remarks 27E.g. fita Opilii Macr. 12 (savage punishments
and has properly stressed the importance of of sexual offences); fita Pescenii 6.6 ' rei veneriae
Heracles. The art-cycle of Mithras' achievements nisi ad creandos liberos prorsus ignarus '-an
has a certain analogy to the 'HpaKVVoU 7rpd4eLW,interesting
as contrast with the concubine of Marcus
they are called in the 'Tabula Iliaca' (0. Jahn, Aurelius. On the Greek novel and its ethical
Griecbische Bilderchroniken, 43). sentimentalism ci. M. Braun, Griechischer Roman
at. hellenistiscke Geschichtschreibustg, 35, n. I, 62 ff.
25 The barbarian cosmogonies quoted by philoso-
and index s.v. 'Gewissen'; on popular morality,
phers under the Empire (as earlier by Aristotle)
cf. S. Reinach, Arch. Rel.-Wiss. ix (I906), 312 ff.
are given as interesting illustrations; only at the
I suspect that certain scruples at the popular level
lower intellectual level of the Hermetica is one a
fused in a measure with the salvationism which
dogma.
spread downwards from Pythagorean and Platonic
26 CIL xiv, 66; cf. Cumont, CRAc. Inscr. I934, circles; cf. Gnomon xii (936), 6Io f.
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THE GENIUS OF MITHRAISM 113
28 C/. F. Saxl, Mithras; L. Deubner, Gronion ix 3 0 Cf. Nock, JTS xxxvii (1936), 305.
(I933), 37Z ff.; and note the phrase in a Mithraeum 31 For a nev monument of the period found in
at Ostia, deum vetusta religione in velo formatum' Rome cf. R. Paribeni, N. d. Sc. 1933, 478 ff.; it must
(of Caelus): G. Calza, N. d. Sc. 1924, 73. be Mithraic, but the sun god, as Paribeni remarks,
29 C/. M. P. Nilsson, Arch. Rel.-Wiss. xxx resembles Juppiter Ileliopolitanus more than
('933), I4I ff. Mithras.
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