THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the two great gods " (Khorshed Nyayis, 6-7). In his own (Mihir) Yast Mithra appears as god of the heavenly light, who sees all and therefore knows the truth, of which he is therefore a witness and the preserver of oaths and of good faith, chastising liars and those who break promises, destroying their homes and smiting them in battle, but protecting those who keep faith. Ahura Mazda created Mithra as worthy of sacrifice and prayer as himself (§ 1); to him the chiefs sacrifice as they go to battle (§8); he precedes the sun over the hills (§ 13); is the invincible director of the fortunes of battle (§§ 35-43). He is the warrior and chief helper of Ahura in his contest with Ahriman, the giver to men of gifts both material and spiritual. Yet it is curious to note that in spite of the exalted position thus conceded in the documents of the religion as thus cited and in the worship accorded him by the princes and nobles of Persia (see below), there appears an effort to reduce him in rank in that he was not given a place with the six Afnshaspands who are closely associated with Ahura as the seven great spirits, but is relegated to the position of Yazata or genius. Significant for the futilre is his association with Sraosha (" Obedience ") and Rashnu (" Justice ") in the protection of the soul from demons, from which develops the doctrine of redemption in the later mysteries. It may be noted in passing that the rites of these mysteries find their beginning in the Zoroastrian literature; baptism goes back to the purificatory aspersion of the Avesta; while the trials of the mysteries are implicit in the flagellations; and both of these were preliminary to the sacrifice (Mihir Yast, § 122). While the theoretical and documentary position of Mithra in Persia was as here described, he was if anything more prominent in the cult. He was a favorite with the Persian monarchs, consequently also with the nobility, and was regarded as the especial protector of this order. This continued after the spread of the cult into the West, the royal favor being shown later by the frequency with which his name enters as an element into royal names in Asia Minor, while Roman emperors see reason to regard him as their protector. The Achsemenidse worshiped him as making the great triad with Ahura and Anahita. His great festival on the sixteenth day of the seventh month (possibly the entire seventh month was sacred to him) was of especial moment in the royal calendar. Sacrifices were offered in his worship, consisting of cattle, great and small, and birds, and the preliminary to sacrifice consisted of ablutions and flagellations. As a consequence of the royal favor, the worship of Mithra spread throughout the empire. Moreover, Mithra was notably a deity with masculine characteristics; he appealed to the soldierly and the virile. It is hardly a wonder then that in its diffusion the Mithraic cult took on the character of an independent religion, and was promulgated no more as an element of Zoroastrianism, the intolerance of which unfitted it for a propaganda in contest with other religions as haughty as itself.
The first step in the development of Mithraism as an independent religion was the carrying of the cult to Babylon, the winter capital of the empire!
It there encountered the philosophical theologizing of the Babylonian priests, who identified Mithra with Shamash (see Babylonia, VII. 3. Develop- 2, § 4), and welded to Mithra's story ment and the mythology in which Babylonia Diffusion of was so rich. In addition to this there Mithraism. was ingrafted the mythology of the zodiac and shreds of Babylonian astrolatry, and this all came to have a large part in the symbolism of Mithraism. Into Armenia the faith was carried, and thence into Asia Minor, where after the division of the empire of Alexander, Mithra became the favorite deity. It was probably at this period, 250-100 B.C., that the Mithraic system of ritual and doctrine took the form which it afterward retained. Here it came into contact with the mysteries, of which there were many varieties, among which the most notable were those of Cybele. Cumont attributes the development of the mysteries to the habit in Persia of transmitting from father to son the essentials and secrets of ritual. But if this be the origin, there is left unaccounted for the markedly sodalistic or fraternity character of the Mithraic communities. The worshipers in each mithrseum were a small body, limited in membership, and the ensemble was much like that of a modern lodge. When it is remembered that the period 300 b.c-100 a.d. was the one marked by a renascence of that curious feature of savage life, the mysteries, and that Asia Minor was the source from which the movement in the Roman and Greek world emanated, it seems more probable that the new cult took this form under the influences then and there so active, and that in this way the then fluent mass of Mithraic belief and practise took permanent form. The spirit of identification which had helped so in Babylon was employed in the new home. Mithra and Helios were identified, while Anahita, the Persian companion of Mithra, to whom the bull was sacred, was regarded as Artemis Tauropolos. These facile accommodations conciliated the populace, the element of secrecy and the grades or orders of the initiates added to the charm, while the belief that in the mysteries access was granted to the fabled wisdom of the East was one more element in favor of the religion. But the great triumphs of Mithraism were not won east of the Mge&n, even Greece was wholly inhospitable; it was in the Roman world where success was to be gained. The story of the transition thither is almost that of romance. Among the people of Asia Minor the Cilicians were possibly the most devoted Mithraists. In their ambition they presumed to dispute with the Romans the control of the seas, and this brought upon them the force of Roman arms and the consequent conquest by the Romans of the " Cilician pirates." Among the immediate results of this was the initiation of Roman soldiers into the mysteries — it must not be forgotten that the cult of Mithra appealed especially to the soldier, and one of the ranks in the mysteries was that of miles or " soldier." To this was due the introduction of the mysteries into the army, and the army was the principal of three methods by which Mithraism passed into the Roman world. The successive wars of the Romans in the East brought the