Mga misteryong Mitraiko

Dalawang mukhang relief na Mitraiko. Roma, ika-2 hanggang ika-3 siglo CE. Louvre Museum

Ang mga Misteryong Mitraiko o Mithraic Mysteries ay mga relihiyong misteryong sinanay sa Imperyo Romano mula mga ika-1 hanggang ika-4 na siglo CE. Ang pangalan ng diyos na si Mithra na ginawang Griyego bilang Mithras ay iniugnay sa isang bago at natatanging paglalarawan. Ito ay tinukoy ng mga Romano na Mga Misteryo ni Mithras o Mga Misteryo ng mga Persa (Persian). Ito ay tinutukoy ng mga modernong historyan bilang Mitraismo^[1] o minsan ay Mitraismong Romano.^[2]^[3] Ang mga misteryong ito ay sikat sa hukbong Romano.^[4]

Ang mga mananamba ni Mithras ay may masalimuot na sistema ng pitong mga grado ng inisiasyon na may mga ritwal na pagkain. Ang mga inisiyado ay tumawag sa kanilang mga sarili na syndexioi na mga "nagkaisa sa pamamagitan ng pagkakamay".^[5] Ang mga ito ay nagtatagpo sa mga pang-ilalim na templo na tinatawag na mithraea na nagpatuloy sa malaking mga bilang. Ang kultong ito ay lumilitaw rin na may episentro sa Roma.^[6]

Ang ilang mga pagkakatuklas na arkeolohikal, kabilang ang mga tagpuang lugar, mga monumento, mga artipakto ang nag-ambag sa modernong kaalaman tungkol sa Mitraismo sa buong Imperyo Romano.^[7] Ang mga eksenang ikoniko ni Mithras ay nagpapakita sa kanyang ipinanganak mula sa isang bato, nagpapaslang ng isang toro, at nagsasalo ng isang salo-salo sa diyos na si Sol(ang Araw). Ang mga 420 lugar ay nagdulot ng mga materyal na nauugnay sa kultong ito. Kabilang mga mga bagay na natuklasan ang mga 1000 inskripsisyon, 700 mga halimbawa ng eksenang pagpatay ng toro(tauroctonya) at mga 400 iba pang mga monumento.^[8] Tinatayang may mga hindi bababa sa 680-690 Mithraea sa Roma.^[9] Walang nakasulat na mga salaysay o teolohiya ang umiiral, may limitadong impormasyon na mahahango mula sa mga inskripsiyon at tanging maikli mga reperensiya sa mga panitikang Griyego at latin. Ang interpretasyon ng ebidensiyang pisikal ay nananatiling problematiko at pinagtatalunan.^[10]

Ang mga mismong Romano ay tumuturing sa mga misteryo na may mga pinagkunang Persian o Zoroastrian. Simula noong mga 1970, ang nananaig na skolarsyip ay nagbigay pansin sa hindi pagkakatulad sa pagitan ng pagsambang Persian-Mithra sa Romano-Mitraikong at ang mga misteryo ni Mithras ay pangkalahatan ngayong nakikitang natatanging produkto ng daigdig na relihiyoso ng Imperyo Romano.^[3] Sa kontekstong ito, ang Mitraismo ay minsang nakikitang katunggali ng sinaunang Kristiyanismo.^[11]

Mga sanggunian

↑ Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Nakuha noong 2011-03-24. The term "Mithraism" is of course a modern coinage. In antiquity the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras"; alternatively, as "the mysteries of the Persians."…The Mithraists, who were manifestly not Persians in any ethnic sense, thought of themselves as cultic "Persians." …the ancient Roman Mithraists themselves were convinced that their cult was founded by none other than Zoroaster, who "dedicated to Mithras, the creator and father of all, a cave in the mountains bordering Persia," an idyllic setting "abounding in flowers and springs of water" (Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs 6).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)
↑ "Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies". Inarkibo mula sa orihinal noong 2015-05-18. Nakuha noong 2011-03-28. The Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies (EJMS) is a revival of the Journal of Mithraic Studies edited by Dr. Richard Gordon. It is a place where researchers on Roman Mithraism can publish the product of their research and make it freely available for other interested people.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition,. Nakuha noong 2011-03-28. For most of the twentieth century the major problem addressed by scholarship on both Roman Mithraism and the Iranian god Mithra was the question of continuity.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link) CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
↑ Geden, A. S. (15 Oktubre 2004). Select Passages Illustrating Mithraism 1925. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-1-4179-8229-5. Nakuha noong 28 Marso 2011. Porphyry moreover seems to be the only writer who makes reference to women initiates into the service and rites of Mithra, and his allusion is perhaps due to a misunderstanding.... The participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, but the predominant military influence in Mithraism seems to render it unlikely in this instance.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)
↑ M. Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 42: "That the hand-shaken might make their vows joyfully forever"
↑ Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158. p. 156: "Beyond these three Mithraea [in Syria and Palestine], there are only a handful of objects from Syria that may be identified with Mithraism. Archaeological evidence of Mithraism in Syria is therefore in marked contrast to the abundance of Mithraea and materials that have been located in the rest of the Roman Empire. Both the frequency and the quality of Mithraic materials is greater in the rest of the empire. Even on the western frontier in Britain, archaeology has produced rich Mithraic materials, such as those found at Walbrook. If one accepts Cumont’s theory that Mithraism began in Iran, moved west through Babylon to Asia Minor, and then to Rome, one would expect that the cult left its traces in those locations. Instead, archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome. Wherever its ultimate place of origin may have been, the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants. None of the Mithraic materials or temples in Roman Syria except the Commagene sculpture bears any date earlier than the late first or early second century. [footnote in cited text: 30. Mithras, identified with a Phrygian cap and the nimbus about his head, is depicted in colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I of Commagene, 69–34 BCE. (see Vermaseren, CIMRM 1.53–56). However, there are no other literary or archaeological evidences to indicate that the religion of Mithras as it was known among the Romans in the second to fourth centuries AD was practiced in Commagene]. While little can be proved from silence, it seems that the relative lack of archaeological evidence from Roman Syria would argue against the traditional theories for the origins of Mithraism."
↑ Beck, Roger (2011-02-17). "The Pagan Shadow of Christ?". BBC-History. Nakuha noong 2011-06-04. We know a good deal about them because archaeology has disinterred many meeting places together with numerous artifacts and representations of the cult myth, mostly in the form of relief sculpture.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)
↑ Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries. pp. xxi. ISBN 0-415-92977-6.
↑ Coarelli; Beck, Roger; Haase, Wolfgang (1984). Aufstieg und niedergang der römischen welt [The Rise and Decline of the Roman World]. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 2026–. ISBN 978-3-11-010213-0. Nakuha noong 20 Marso 2011. A useful topographic survey, with map, by F. Coarelli (1979) lists 40 actual or possible mithraea (the latter inferred from find-spots, with the sensible proviso that a mithraeum will not necessarily correspond to every find). Principally from comparisons of size and population with Ostia, Coarelli calculates that there will have been in Rome "not less than 680–690" mithraea in all ... .{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)
↑ Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 3. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. However, in the absence of any ancient explanations of its meaning, Mithraic iconography has proven to be exceptionally difficult to decipher.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)
↑ Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (Setyembre 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". Sa Lewis M. Hopfe (pat.). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Nakuha noong 19 Marso 2011. Today more than four hundred locations of Mithraic worship have been identified in every area of the Roman Empire. Mithraea have been found as far west as Britain and as far east as Dura Europas. Between the second and fourth centuries C.E. Mithraism may have vied with Christianity for domination of the Roman world.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[1] Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Nakuha noong 2011-03-24. The term "Mithraism" is of course a modern coinage. In antiquity the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras"; alternatively, as "the mysteries of the Persians."…The Mithraists, who were manifestly not Persians in any ethnic sense, thought of themselves as cultic "Persians." …the ancient Roman Mithraists themselves were convinced that their cult was founded by none other than Zoroaster, who "dedicated to Mithras, the creator and father of all, a cave in the mountains bordering Persia," an idyllic setting "abounding in flowers and springs of water" (Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs 6).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[2] "Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies". Inarkibo mula sa orihinal noong 2015-05-18. Nakuha noong 2011-03-28. The Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies (EJMS) is a revival of the Journal of Mithraic Studies edited by Dr. Richard Gordon. It is a place where researchers on Roman Mithraism can publish the product of their research and make it freely available for other interested people.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[beck1-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Beck, Roger (2002-07-20). "Mithraism". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition,. Nakuha noong 2011-03-28. For most of the twentieth century the major problem addressed by scholarship on both Roman Mithraism and the Iranian god Mithra was the question of continuity.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link) CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

[geden_1-4] Geden, A. S. (15 Oktubre 2004). Select Passages Illustrating Mithraism 1925. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-1-4179-8229-5. Nakuha noong 28 Marso 2011. Porphyry moreover seems to be the only writer who makes reference to women initiates into the service and rites of Mithra, and his allusion is perhaps due to a misunderstanding.... The participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, but the predominant military influence in Mithraism seems to render it unlikely in this instance.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[claussonhandshake-5] M. Clauss, The Roman cult of Mithras, p. 42: "That the hand-shaken might make their vows joyfully forever"

[hopfe-5-6] Lewis M. Hopfe, "Archaeological indications on the origins of Roman Mithraism", in Lewis M. Hopfe (ed). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson, Eisenbrauns (1994), pp. 147–158. p. 156: "Beyond these three Mithraea [in Syria and Palestine], there are only a handful of objects from Syria that may be identified with Mithraism. Archaeological evidence of Mithraism in Syria is therefore in marked contrast to the abundance of Mithraea and materials that have been located in the rest of the Roman Empire. Both the frequency and the quality of Mithraic materials is greater in the rest of the empire. Even on the western frontier in Britain, archaeology has produced rich Mithraic materials, such as those found at Walbrook. If one accepts Cumont’s theory that Mithraism began in Iran, moved west through Babylon to Asia Minor, and then to Rome, one would expect that the cult left its traces in those locations. Instead, archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome. Wherever its ultimate place of origin may have been, the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants. None of the Mithraic materials or temples in Roman Syria except the Commagene sculpture bears any date earlier than the late first or early second century. [footnote in cited text: 30. Mithras, identified with a Phrygian cap and the nimbus about his head, is depicted in colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I of Commagene, 69–34 BCE. (see Vermaseren, CIMRM 1.53–56). However, there are no other literary or archaeological evidences to indicate that the religion of Mithras as it was known among the Romans in the second to fourth centuries AD was practiced in Commagene]. While little can be proved from silence, it seems that the relative lack of archaeological evidence from Roman Syria would argue against the traditional theories for the origins of Mithraism."

[7] Beck, Roger (2011-02-17). "The Pagan Shadow of Christ?". BBC-History. Nakuha noong 2011-06-04. We know a good deal about them because archaeology has disinterred many meeting places together with numerous artifacts and representations of the cult myth, mostly in the form of relief sculpture.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[8] Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries. pp. xxi. ISBN 0-415-92977-6.

[HaaseTemporini1984-9] Coarelli; Beck, Roger; Haase, Wolfgang (1984). Aufstieg und niedergang der römischen welt [The Rise and Decline of the Roman World]. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 2026–. ISBN 978-3-11-010213-0. Nakuha noong 20 Marso 2011. A useful topographic survey, with map, by F. Coarelli (1979) lists 40 actual or possible mithraea (the latter inferred from find-spots, with the sensible proviso that a mithraeum will not necessarily correspond to every find). Principally from comparisons of size and population with Ostia, Coarelli calculates that there will have been in Rome "not less than 680–690" mithraea in all ... .{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[10] Ulansey, David (1991). Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. New York: Oxford UP. p. 3. ISBN 0-19-506788-6. However, in the absence of any ancient explanations of its meaning, Mithraic iconography has proven to be exceptionally difficult to decipher.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

[RichardsonHopfe1994-11] Hopfe, Lewis M.; Richardson, Henry Neil (Setyembre 1994). "Archaeological Indications on the Origins of Roman Mithraism". Sa Lewis M. Hopfe (pat.). Uncovering ancient stones: essays in memory of H. Neil Richardson. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-931464-73-7. Nakuha noong 19 Marso 2011. Today more than four hundred locations of Mithraic worship have been identified in every area of the Roman Empire. Mithraea have been found as far west as Britain and as far east as Dura Europas. Between the second and fourth centuries C.E. Mithraism may have vied with Christianity for domination of the Roman world.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date auto-translated (link)

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