John R.

Hinnells EDITOR

Mithraic studies
Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies

Volume I

Manchester University Press

Rowman and Littlefield
150 David W. MacDowall

not necessarily reflect the realities of the situation, and they may well have
been deliberately ambiguous to convey different ideas to different people.
Let each understand what he will. If the citizen does and is satisfied, the
government has achieved its goal. Perhaps the extent to which there are
convincing and divergent interpretations of the Kusana coinage is an indi-
cation of its very success as numismatic propaganda. Nevertheless, by
analysing the common copper coins of the Kusanas we can begin to detect
regional differences in emphasis in different territories of the confederacy and
to assess the role of Mithra-Helios among the other deities.
 fFranz Gumont TRANSLATED
AND EDITED BY E. D. FRANCIS

13 The Dura Mithraeum

Contents
Editor's preface. T h e D u r a M i t h r a e u m . 1. M i t h r a in Syria. 2. Mithraism at D u r a . 3.
T h e interior arrangement of the M i t h r a e u m . 4. T h e bas-reliefs. 5. T h e paintings.
6. T h e graffiti a n d dipinti. 7. Conclusion. Appendix 13.1. Plutarch's M i t h r a i c
pirates, by E. D . Francis. Appendix 13.2. M a m m a l i a in the hunting fresco, by G.
Evelyn Hutchinson.

Editor's preface
I n 1896, at the age of twenty-eight, F r a n z C u m o n t inaugurated the modern history
of M i t h r a i c scholarship by publishing his Textes et monuments figure's relatifs aux mys-
tires de Mithra n . 1 T h r e e years later he provided a critical introduction to the evidence
assembled in volume n. T h e second p a r t of this introduction was then printed sep-
arately as Les Mystlres de Mithra, a compelling portrait of the biography a n d n a t u r e
of M i t h r a which seemed to illuminate the dark recesses enshrouding the I r a n i a n
origin a n d R o m a n cult of the god. I n his quest for coherent synthesis, however,
C u m o n t sometimes pressed his conclusions beyond the available evidence, 2 a n d
w h a t m a n y epigoni have on occasion taken to represent a n unassailable j u d g e m e n t
m a y rest on little more than a n imaginative interpretation of unusually problematic
1
Brussels, 1896; vol. 1, Brussels, 1899. The titles of other books by Cumont to which
reference will be made are as follows: F. Cumont, Les Mystkres de Mithra, Brussels, 1900
( = TMMM 1, pp. 223 f.; third edition, in German,by K. Latte, Leipzig, 1923; references in
the present article are to T . J . McCormack's English translation [London, 1903] of the second
French edition, abbr. Mysteries); id., Fouilles de Doura-Europos {igss-3), Paris, 1926 (abbr.
Fouilles) ;id., Les Religions orientates dans lepaganisme romain,* Paris, 1929 (abbr., Religions orientates4);
id., Recherches sur Ie symboiisme funiraire des Romains, Paris, 1942 (abbr. Symbolisme funiraire);
id. (posth.), Lux perpelua, Paris, 1949 (abbr. Lux perpetua); also, J . Bidez and F. Cumont, Les
mages hellSnisis; ^oroaslre, Oslanis et Hystaspe d'apres la tradition grecque, two volumes, Paris,
1938 (abbr. Mages hellinish); M. I. Rostovtzeff et at., The excavations at Dura-Europos, Pre-
liminary Report of the Seventh and Eighth Seasons of Work 1933-4 ana ^ I934~5> New Haven, 1939
(abbr. Reports vii-vm); L. A. Campbell, Mithraic Iconography and Ideology, Leiden, 1968
(abbr., Mil); E. D. Francis, 'Mithraic graffiti from Dura-Europos,' pp. 424 f. below (abbr.
'Graffiti').
2
Cf., for example, the criticisms of S. Wikander, EMM (reviewed by D. Schlumberger,
Syria xxx, 1953, pp. 325-30), and the contributions of R. Gordon and J. R. Hinnells to this
volume (pp. 215 ff., pp. 290 n"., respectively); cf. also appendix 13.1 below.
180 Franz Cumont

since they introduce certain elements which add further dimension to our
conception of this, the supreme event of Mithra's terrestrial mission. Both
scenes are closely related, although they derive from regions widely distant
from each other. Indeed, this fact itself offers confirmation of the funda-
mental unity of Mithraic doctrine. The first is a decoration on the bottom of a
cup discovered in 1905 in the Roman cemetery of St Matthew near Trier. 161
Mithra and the Sun are seated together on a divan in front of the food which
they are about to eat, two small loaves of bread 162 and, in a plate, perhaps a
piece of meat. 163 Sol prepares to drain his rhyton, which he holds in his right
hand, while Mithra accepts his own rhyton from one of his two acolytes, now
transformed into a cup-bearer and standing at his right. The second acolyte,
on the left of the Sun, holds a scarcely distinguishable object in his left hand,
possibly a napkin, and with his right offers a loaf of bread similar to those on
the table. A huge lion is lying in front of this table, in the centre of the com-
position. 164 Above we see a large krater, encircled with a snake which is
plunging its head inside the vessel as if about to drink its contents. The raven
perches on the right and, on the left, a cock is moving towards the vase.
If this assembly of gods and beasts appeared only on a small clay cup we
might decide to attribute it to the potter's imagination, but a recent dis-
covery in Portugal brings us clear proof that the scene expresses a well
established tradition in the mysteries. In the ruins of a Mithraeum at Troia
(the ancient Gaetobriga, situated opposite Setubal) five fragments of a
sculptured relief have come to light. 165 On the left of the original relief we see
the remains of a representation of a bull-slaying god. A foreleg of the bull is
still visible, Gautopates is lowering his torch, and, above, we see the portrait
of Luna. At the right and in the same proportions the banquet scene is repre-
sented. We may therefore conclude that, as at Konjica, the two representa-
tions form a pair. Mithra is wearing his characteristic oriental costume, and
Sol's nimbus is radiate. Both hold a rhyton in their left hands, and the sun god is
moving to the right as if he intended to pick up an object (possibly a large
drinking vessel ?) which Cautes is carrying in both hands. Cautes' torch has
fallen to the ground at his feet. Above the flame of this lighted torch we see a
lei WD^xxv, pp. 4 6 4 ^ , plate i^.',RA, 1946, pp. 189 f., fig. 3 ; Saxl, MTU, p. 20, plate 10,
No. 6 1 ; CIMRM 1, p. 328, No. 988; note also Loschcke's excellent commentary in Trierer
Heimatbuch. Festschrift zur rheinischen Jahrtausendfeier, Trier, 1925, pp. 322-6.
162 p o r a comparable offering in the liturgy of the Parsis, see TMMM1, pp. 320 f.
163
Cf. the role of the Raven discussed above (p. 178).
164
These animals represent the four elements (Lion: Fire, Snake: Earth, Grab: Water,
Bird: Air). The cave in which the mystical banquet took place was considered an image of
the world whose vault is the sky. For this reason, the symbols of those elements from which
the world is formed are represented there (cf. Porphyry, De antro nympharum 6: . . . elxdva
yegovrog [avru>] rov ajirjKatov rov xoa/nov, ov 6 MiOgag edrj^iovgyrjae, rwv d& ivrdg Hard
ovjufiirgovg dnoardaeig avfipoXa <pegovra>v ra>v XOO/MXCOV oroixetcov xal xhjxdxwv; RA
1946, p. 191).
165
Cf. Mendes da Costa, Archeol. Port, xxix, 1930-31, appeared 1934, pp. 5 f., fig. 26;
CIMRM 1, p. 277, No. 798. Cf. Cumont, CRAI1934, p. 262; RA 1946, pp. 191 f., fig. 4.
 The Dura Mithraeum 181

krater encircled, as at Trier, by a snake. To the right, Cautopates holds his

lowered torch in Mis left hand, and with his right he lifts an oenochoe close to
the krater as though he were going to pour some wine.
We have previously argued 166 that the group of the lion, the krater and the
snake, frequently attested on the bas-reliefs of the Danube and the Rhine,
symbolised three distinct elements—fire, water and earth. The two represent-
ations which we have just discussed confirm this interpretation, for, in the one
case at Troia, the burning torch has been intentionally set near the krater in
place of the fiery lion and, in the other at Trier, we find, next to the custom-
ary group, two birds which are clearly emblematic of the air through which
they fly.167
In the Mithraic mysteries, however, such cosmological and astronomical
explanations are always secondary. They belong to a system of recondite
exegesis of the old tales and legends by which the artists who created these
sculptures were inspired. It is not improbable that the sacred legend also
reserved a role in the episode of the divine feast for the faithful companions of
Mithra, the snake and the lion, who accompanied the Oedg eymnog, and for
the cock, sacred to Cautes, 168 the OQVIQ IIEQGIXOQ whose voice, in announcing
the appearance of the light, routed the demons. 169 At Trier, as at Troia, we
see that they also participated in the divine feast and probably drank of the
wine which conferred immortality. We are, however, too ignorant of the
Mithraic IEQOQ Xoyoq to go into further details. Were the animals trans-
formed into heroes with human form by virtue of this draught? It would be
altogether hazardous to make such a suggestion in view of the poor state of
our knowledge. 170, The essential meaning of the act to which Mithraism
attached so high a religious value is, however, confirmed by the monuments
which we have just considered: reunited at the final meal before their
ascension into Heaven, the two gods consume the bread made from the
grain produced by the body of the bull at its death and they drink the wine
drawn from the vine which issued from its blood. Thus we at least catch a
glimpse of the parallels to which Justin Martyr alluded when he accused the
vicious forces of evil of having created the Mithraic communion to parody the
institution of the Eucharist. 171
166
TMMM i, pp. ioo f., 80.
187
Cf. Loschcke, op. cit. (cf. n. 161 above), p. 323.
ifi8 TMMM J, p. QIO.
169 P r u d e n t i u s , Cath. 1.37; ferunt uagantes daemones, / laetos tenebris noctium / gallo canente
exterritos / sparsim timere et cedere (cf. TMMM 1, p p . 128, 2 1 0 ; RARA v, 1927, p . 7 1 ; CRAI
1942, pp. 288 f.; Lux perpetua, pp. 230, 409 f. [Cumont himself requested a reference to Lux
perpetua, cf. preface, n. 14 above].
170
Loschcke (op. cit.) has proposed a different interpretation.
171
Justin, Apol. 1.66 (cf. TMMM 1, p. 230). On this parody of the Eucharist, see my
article in RA 1946, pp. 183 f., especially 194, where I discuss a Syriac text in which certain
Magi have apparently substituted the body of Zoroaster for the flesh of the bull in their
sacrificial feast. The text in question is entitled The Book of the Elements (oTot%Eia) of the World:
note that precisely those elements are represented in the Mithraic versions of the banquet.
182 Franz Cumont

(b) The signs of the zodiac. The soffit of the vaulted niche was decorated with
pictures of the twelve signs of the zodiac, each set in a rectangular frame (see
plate 30). They were drawn in red-brown strokes and coloured with a neutral
shade of brown, red or yellow. Like the mythological representations which
we have just discussed, this series started at the top of the vault, above the
portrait of Kronos. The first picture, that of Aries, has disappeared, like
Taurus to its left. Lower down, the Gemini, often identified with Hercules
and Apollo, 172 are pictured as two young men standing side by side. The
shoulders of Castor-Hercules are covered with the lion-skin hanging down
his back. He supports himself by resting his right hand on his club. His left
hand is at waist height and probably held the apples of the Hesperides.
Apollo is represented as an ephebe dressed in a simple chlamys. His torso and
legs are bare and he lacks any distinguishing attribute. Cancer is pictured as
a large, reddish-brown crab, claws at the ready. Leo is painted yellow. He has
a mane and is leaping to the right. Virgo is a woman, her head encircled by a
nimbus, her body modestly veiled by long, pleated garments. Her lowered
left hand may have held an ear of corn. The series continues on the right,
progressing, like the legend of Mithra, from the bottom to the top. First we
see Libra depicted as a rosy youth who stands naked, facing us as he holds
aloft the scales. Next come Scorpio and Sagittarius. Scorpio's coiled tail
curves up to the left, and Sagittarius is pictured as a centaur galloping to the
right and drawing his bow. His equine hind quarters are somewhat damaged.
Finally Capricorn has a goat's head and body, which, however, ends in the
writhing tail of a sea monster. The plaster has come away from the upper
curve of the vault and carried Aquarius and Pisces with it.
These figures are no different from many other familiar representations
of the zodiac, but they acquire a certain iconographic importance from the
fact that they can be precisely dated. We have already noted that these
twelve celestial asterisms were reproduced on the larger of the two bas-
reliefs in the Dura Mithraeum (p. 166). According to astrological belief,
these constellations were, together with the planets, the mighty artisans of
human and material destiny. Like the Chaldeans, the votaries of Mithra
accordingly considered them to be divine and rendered them passionate
worship in all their shrines. 173

(c) The two Magi. These two beautiful figures, painted on either side of the
piers of the cult niche, are of considerable value, for until now nothing similar
172
[Cf. H. Seyrig, 'Heracles-Nergal', Syria xxiv, 1944, pp. 76 f.; Susan B. Downey, The
Heracles Sculpture ( = Dura-Europos Final Report 111, pt. 1, fsc. 1, New Haven 1969, p. 48 n. 5)].
173
TMMM 1, p . n o (on the ritual significance of the signs of the Zodiac); G. Thiele,
Antike Himmelsbilder mit Forschungen zu Kunstgeschichte des Sternhimmels, Berlin 1898, pp. 65 f.;
A. Bouch6-Leclercq, Astrologie grecque, Paris 1899, pp. 130 f.; Daremberg-Saglio, Diet, antiq.
(s.v. 'Zodiacus', pp. 1061 f.); [K. Latte, Romische Religionsgeschichte, Munich i960, p . 351.]
 The Dura Mithraeum 183

has been found in any other Mithraeum (see plate 25). They are both dressed
in Persian costume 174 and majestically enthroned on chairs with raised backs.
Owing to the carelessness of the painter, who ignored the rules of perspective,
their four carved feet are all on the same level. The head of each figure is
crowned with a tall, curved tiara and each body is clothed in a long tunic
with a wide, embroidered belt around the waist. They both wear billowing
breeches knotted at the ankle above their high boots. A yellow mantle has
been thrown around their shoulders and hangs down their backs; it is
fastened at the chest with a round brooch. The tunic and the breeches are
decorated in front with vertical stripes, and between double borders a row
of buttons has been sewn. The neck of the tunic is embroidered like the belt.
The sleeves are circled with bands, like a clavus, one at the wrists, the other
round the upper arms. The figures wear a short beard and a drooping
moustache. Their black eyes are wide open under arched eyebrows and
their whole face is distinctively Iranian in type. The artist has executed
these features with particular skill. He has endeavoured to reproduce the
lines of the cheeks and the throat with especially distinct colours and has
enhanced this effect with fine hatching which causes the white plaster to
show beneath the colour. He apparently aspired to paint actual portraits,
but whom did he intend to depict? The oriental sages each clasp a white
volumen in their left hand and, in their right, a black cane with a flat pommel
and tapered to a point which one holds erect and the other on a slant. The
presence of the rolls defines them as teachers, and the black cane can only
represent a magical ebony staff,175 the characteristic attribute of a thauma-

174
Gf. M. Rostovtzeff (TCS v, 1935, pp. 279 f.): 'The two figures are Palmyrene in all
their characteristic traits. Their dress, while exactly the same as that of many of the heroized
dead on the Palmyrene funerary bas-reliefs, is quite different from the dress of the Achae-
menid or Parthian Magi described above (viz. in "Dura and the problem of Parthian A r t " ] ,
and hardly can be taken to be the dress of Palmyrene priests. It is the parade dress of the
Palmyrene aristocracy. The style of the two figures is also Palmyrene and can be compared
with the style of the painted portraits of the deceased in late Palmyrene graves, though there
is not the slightest trace of Romanization or Hellenization in the Dura figures.' Note
also in the Mithraeum at Capua, the priests (or at least some of them) wore oriental
costumes (cf. Minto, Notizie degli Scavi xxi, 1924, pp. 361 f.; Vermaseren, Mithriaca 1, pp.
16 f.; Gumont, Religions orientalesi, plate 13. Compare the/>aterinthe Mithraeum of Sta. Prisca
(Vermaseren and van Essen, EMSP, p. 169). We might therefore be led to suppose
that the Dura portraits represent those members of the community of [idyoi who had
contributed to the construction of the shrine. Two patres patrum are specifically mentioned
on one of the inscriptions {Reports vn-vni, No. 855, CIMRM 1, No. 57) but it is doubtful if
anything definite can be inferred on the basis of such evidence (cf. CRAI 1945, p . 417,
n. 3).
175
Ps.-Callisth, 1.1 i^evvlvr/v gdfldov; trans. Iul. Valer. 1.1: tenens in manu uirgam \eb\-
eneam et per magicas artes, uocabat daemones; K. Prcisendanz, Pap. Gr. Mag., 1.279 ( = v °l- J> P-
16): xal CToMaaq aeavrov nqotprpcixCp ayr\fxaxi e^£ eflevvivrjv qdjihov ev rfj Xaiq. xeiQi xr^-
(cf. 1.336, p. 18); id., 8.2 ( = vol. 2, p. 46): oldd oov xal TO £VXOV rd eflevvivov; D. L.
Proem. 7: . . . xal xdXa/uog i\ $axxr\Qla, & xevrovvreg, q>aal, rov rvgov avrjoovvro xal
dnrjaQiov; Roscher, Lexicon (s.v. 'Zauberstab,' p. 555).