DEO SOLI INVICTO MITHRAE (original) (raw)
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”Mithras in Apulum – an iconographic case study”, Apulum 56, 2019, pp. 171-184
Apulum, 2019
The Mithraic community in Apulum was epigraphically and artistically inclined in the 2nd and 3rd c. Although it had slightly fewer members than that in Sarmizegetusa, it included the only one of Mithras’ worshippers of senatorial rank known from Dacia. The Mithraic monuments exhibited in the National Museum in Alba Iulia show that, while the cult of Mithras was the most popular religion in the Roman army , civilian worshippers were very numerous. More importantly, the 18 figurative monuments discussed above typify the degree of provincial flexibility allowed for within the cult’s overall iconographic unity across the Empire.Keywords: Mithras, provincial Roman art, ancient iconography, Apulum.
The archaeology of Mithraism. New finds and approaches to Mithras-worship, a cura di M.M. McCarty, M. Egri (BABesch Suppl., 39), Leuven - Paris – Bristol, 2020
Ancient Ostia presents the largest amount of urban mithraea in the Roman world. Although the city is not yet digged in its entirety, every district has worship places dedicated to god Mithra. Thanks to the publication, sixty years ago, of the Giovanni Becatti’s catalogue in the “Scavi di Ostia” series, these mithraea are well known, but much remains to be done. Recently the research carried out by the Ostia Marina Project of the University of Bologna has led to the discovery of a new mithraeum – so-called of “Colored Marbles” – built in the second half of the IV century A.D. in the neighborhood outside Porta Marina. From this finding, a research project has been proposed, aimed at a new systematic study of the ostian mithraism, in an attempt to understand its final stages of life and the ways of decline and abandonment of the mithraea between IV and V century A.D., especially in connection with the victory of Christianity and its radicalization in the ancient city. On this occasion, some research will be presented, focusing mainly on the Aldobrandini mithraeum, the mithraeum of Fructosus, the mithraeum of the Snakes (Serpenti) and the so-called mithraeum of the Thermae of Mithra, with special attention to the new structural reliefs, carried out with modern bi- and three-dimensional techniques, and to the analysis of still unpublished archive materials.
Mithras Today: A Roman God in the 20th and 21st Centuries
The Mystery of Mithras: Exploring the Heart of a Roman Cult, 2021
The exhibition “The Mystery of Mithras: Exploring the Heart of a Roman Cult” is being presented at the Musée royal de Mariemont from 20 November 2021 to 17 April 2022, then at the Musée Saint-Raymond de Toulouse from 14 May 2022 to 30 October 2022, and lastly at the Archäologisches Museum Frankfurt from 19 November 2022 to 15 April 2023. The catalogue prepared for these different venues pursues three main objectives: proposing, thanks to the contributions of some 75 international experts, a new synthesis for a complex and fascinating cult that reflects the remarkable advances in our knowledge in recent decades; promoting by means of high-quality illustrations numerous monuments, both famous and unknown, that represent so many pieces of the giant Mithraic puzzle; lastly, to restore Mithras to his proper place in the religious landscape of yesterday and the European culture of today. For ordering the catalogue: accueil@mariemont.be
Cult Images and Mithraic Reliefs in Roman Dacia
Transylvanian Review • Vol. XX, Supplement No. 2:1, 2011
The use of images in religious rituals might be considered an essential practice, integrating theminto the spiritual life of the antiquity. The festivals, in which images were periodically dressed,paraded, washed and worshiped, stand as a proof of the religious dimension of these artifacts. Thequestion that arises is what kind of images might be considered cultic representations and could there be certain features likely to identify these cultic media? The purpose of this paper is to ana-lyze the relationship between the means of representation and the significance of the cults attested on the territory of the province of Dacia, focusing on the relief representations of the Mithraic reli-gion. The generally accepted thought is that a cult object is symbolized only by statues, while relief representations fall into the votive category. It is believed that only statues occupied a central placein the temple, receiving donations and other kinds of manifestations in order to demonstrate thedivinity’s veneration by the worshiper. This hypothesis is based on the ancient Greeks’ belief that the divinity had the same nature as the humans, and thus anthropomorphism was the Greek solu-tion for the representation of the deity. Nevertheless, there are several cults which have the relief asa main form of representation, central among them being the Mithraic cult, and thus the questionthat arises, and which we try to answer, is whether a representation is a cult image or not.
MITHRAS CULT IN MOESIA INFERIOR: THE ANALYSIS OF SOME RELIEFS FROM THE NORTHERN PART OF THE PROVINCE
Pontica 52, 2019
The publication of a Mithras relief from Castelu/Medgidia, bearing a Greek inscription and a simple tauroctony scene, offers an opportunity for its iconographical analysis in the context of analogies existing in Moesia inferior and other Roman provinces. Therefore, it is possible to highlight the specifics of the Mithras reliefs from the region. The Mithras cult was one of the most widespread in the Roman provinces in the 2 nd-3 rd century, with Moesia inferior being no exception 1. The occurrence of dedications in Greek, especially in the Greek cities on the Black Sea coast and their hinterland, was characteristic for this region.