Audiotour 7_2_THE BUILDING WITH MOSAICS_en

MITHRAISM

The cult of Mithras was a mystery religion with secret rituals reserved for initiated, spread throughout the empire thanks above all to the soldiers and slaves of Oriental origin who populated the provinces, but who also sinked in the upper classes of Roman society.

We know that there were seven degrees of initiation and that the cult was connected with that of Sol Invictus, with the creation of the Universe and with the cycles of death and rebirth connected to the alternation of the seasons. The ritual included a sacred banquet attended by the initiated, purifying ablutions and sacrifices.

The information on this religion comes from Christian writers or in any case not adepts, and from the archaeological discoveries referable to the images of the god and to the places where he was venerated, the mithraeans.

The images we know of Mitra portray him as a young man, shaved, with a curly head surmounted by the typical Frigian hat with a folded tip and with a fluttering cloak embroidered with seven stars.

The god is generally depicted in the act of killing the cosmic bull, which by dying gave life to the universe. The bull is depicted squatting and dying, with Mithras holding it by the horns and resting its left knee on its back; the scene is completed by a snake and a dog drinking blood gushing from the bull's wound and a scorpion pricking the animal's testicles.

On the sides there are two male figures with short tunics, Cautes and Cautopates: one holds a torch facing upwards, symbolizing the dawn and spring, and the other a torch facing downwards, in relation to sunset and autumn.

 
THE MITHRAEANS

The mithraeum, called in Latin spelaeum, was a location placed in a collected and dark compartment that imitated a cave, in analogy with the cave where the god was born, or in a readapted natural cavity, preferably already used for previous local religious cults.

The mithraea could be housed in purpose-built buildings or in reused and modified locations; being able only very rarely to have caves available to carry out the cult, the initiates tried at least to exploit underground or semi-underground environments in urban centers, but not infrequently they used houses, warehouses or other public or private buildings.

However, these buildings were not recognizable from the outside, very different from the great Templar buildings dedicated to traditional deities. The environment was poorly lit and on the ceiling was usually painted a starry sky with the reproduction of the zodiac and the planets.

The main room was characterized by the presence of two side beams (called podia or praesepia), where the worshippers got a seat during the celebration of the banquet that took place on the occasion of the ceremonies.

These beds overlooked a corridor at the bottom of which was an altar for sacrifices and a niche or cave that housed the image of the god carved, or more rarely painted.