of subjects Mithras is coupled with the Sun-god proper, Helios; the story of their relations is obscure, but it clearly ends with the investiture of Helios by Mithras, and an alliance between the two sealed by a banquet, which, as we have seen, was symbolically celebrated in Mithraic ritual.

More important than all, however, was the cosmogonic myth of Mithras and the Bull. There can be little doubt that we have here one of those legends invented in order to explain primitive ritual-in this case the sacrifice of a bull (embodying the 'Corn-Spirit') in order to promote the fertility of the earth. For the successive episodes of the story, the explanation of which is often obscurethe first pursuit of the bull by Mithras, who seizes it by the horns while at full gallop, and having at length checked its career, drags it by the hind feet to a cave, its escape, the message borne to Mithras by the crow, and its final recapture-are but preliminary to the culminating sacrifice, a representation of which, in every Mithraic sanctuary, occupied the position of the altarpiece in a Christian church.* We have already seen (p. 107) that the type was the creation of Pergamene art. Flanked by the two torch-bearers, Mithras plants his knee firmly upon the back of the bull and plunges his knife into its throat.t The clue to the mystical meaning of the sacrifice is given by the accessory details, which teach us that the miracle of creation was accomplished in and through the death of the Bull. From his spinal marrow sprang the fruits of the earth, symbolised by the bunch of ears of corn in which the tail ends; from his blood the grape, whose juice was the elixir of immortal life, and his seed, when purified by lunar influences, engendered the animals useful to man. But the triumph of life over death was not won without a desperate effort made by the power of darkness to frustrate the design of Ahura-Mazda; the noxious creatures of Ahriman-scorpion and serpent-are seen

*The cave in which the sacrifice took place gave its name-spelæumto the Mithraic sanctuaries, which were often natural grottoes. In towns vaulted crypts were substituted.

†The subject is represented on a bronze coin of Tarsus, pl. III, 5, in the British Museum (Catal. Cilicia, xxxvii, fig. 4), which has been gilded, doubtless because it was used as an amulet.

in their futile endeavour to consume the fertilising seed of the Bull and to drink his life-giving blood.

Amongst these Mithraic 'altar-pieces' one of the most remarkable is that found at Heddernheim (pl. I, a), an advanced post of Roman civilisation in the Taunus district, where the presence of a considerable Oriental population is proved by the dedications made by the settlers to the divinities of their native regions. It is true that it has but small artistic merit, and that the busts and groups which form a framework enclosing the conventional subject of the Slaying of the Bull are somewhat ill-preserved and less important than those of kindred monuments as illustrations of the mythical story; but the slab derives a unique importance from the fact that it was made to revolve upon a pivot, so that the eyes of the faithful might rest upon a second representation (pl. I, b) by means of which the significance of the first was visibly displayed. Behind the body of the slain Bull stands Mithras, holding in his left hand a rhyton, or drinkinghorn, and receiving from the hands of Sol a bunch of grapes, symbol of the divine juice into which the blood of the victim was transmuted by celestial alchemy. The place of the torch-bearers is taken by two childish figures, their counterparts, who hold baskets of fruit, the produce of the vegetable world which sprang from the corpse of the Bull. It is hard to say what is symbolised by the radiate cap planted on a pole in the background; but in the upper portion of the relief we have a scene, much defaced, but yet indicating clearly enough that the doctrine mentioned above with respect to the origin of animal life formed part of the Mithraic Mystery as revealed to the worshippers at Heddernheim. Unfortunately the details of the central figure are irretrievably lost; and Cumont's suggestion that Silvanus, concealing under a borrowed form the Drvâspa of the Persian Pantheon, was here represented, is but a doubtful guess.

It may seem strange that a creation-myth should thus fill the central place in the sanctuaries of Mithras; and the explanation must surely be sought in the fact that the story had a significance for the future as well

The relief from Konjica figured above (pl. II) also forms the reverse of a revolving altar-piece.

*

as for the past. And in fact we know that according to the eschatological teaching of Zoroastrianism the ultimate triumph of Ahura-Mazda over Ahriman will be heralded by the reappearance of the divine Bull, followed by the descent of Mithras to the earth and the resurrection of the dead. Once more the bull will be sacrificed, and the worshippers of Mithras will partake of a sacrament the enjoyment of which will secure to them endless bliss, whilst the enemies of Ahura-Mazda will be consumed in the final conflagration. We cannot doubt that some such doctrine as this was recalled to the mind of the Mithraist when he looked upon the familiar scene; and the well-known rite of the Taurobolium,' belonging properly to the cult of the Great Mother of Hither Asia, but adopted by Mithraism when this divinity was identified with the Persian Anahita,† easily found a place in the same order of ideas, and conferred upon those who submitted to its baptism of blood the coveted 're-birth to eternal life.'

Of the moral injunctions laid upon the Mithraist we know but little, except in so far as we may use the evidence of Zoroastrian writings. In the religion of ancient Persia Mithras was the guardian of truth, purity and justice; and these virtues were doubtless enjoined by the commandments of Mithras' of which Julian speaks. Ceremonial ablutions and ascetic practices are ascribed to the Mithraists both by Christian and pagan writers; but they were common features of the group of religions to which Mithraism belonged. What gave it a power of its own and contributed largely to its success was the conception of morality as a conflict, derived from the Zoroastrian dualism. The contemplative might indeed find that which his soul desired in the glorious vision of future union with the Godhead held before his eyes in the mysteries; but, even in an

Loisy (op. cit.) believes that the sacrifice of the bull was offered in the sanctuaries of Mithras with its original intention, i.e. as a rite for the promotion of fertility; and also that, as primitive man conceived of the animal as embodying the God, the act of Mithras was in some sort a self-sacrifice, which would account for the pathetic expression he wears in the more artistic reliefs. These are somewhat doubtful conjectures.

This at least is the opinion of Cumont, which carries great weight; and there is certainly no direct evidence that the 'taurobolium' originally belonged to Mithraism.

age of other-worldliness,' a religion which makes its appeal to the contemplative alone cannot become a conquering force. The soldiery of Mithras was recruited from the world's workers and fighters, who were inspired by the lofty conception of a struggle between Light and Darkness in which they were led to victory by Mithras the Unconquered,' and played their part in securing the final triumph of Good. Small wonder that Mithraism was pre-eminently the creed of the soldier, and that its monuments are found wherever the legions pitched their camp. It must have needed little to convince the Roman soldier at his frontier post on the Rhine or in Northern Britain that his constant warfare with the barbarian was but a phase of a more tremendous conflict. Few indeed were the breasts in which the Stoic ideals could kindle such a fervour as that which breathes in the meditations of Marcus Aurelius, as compared with the multitudes whom the bracing doctrines of Mithraism nerved for their daily warfare with the power of evil.

We have now seen how the religion of Mithras, by means of its sacramental mysticism, its speculative theology and its moral code, made its triple appeal to the emotions, the intellect and the consciences of men. One thing it yet lacked in order to attain the rank of a universal religion-the support of a powerful State. It has already been shown how the doctrine of the Hvareno lent itself to the purposes of legitimate monarchy. A fresh illustration of this feature of Mithraism has been recently furnished by the researches of Rostowzew in connexion with the archæological material found in Southern Russia.* We find in the East a type of Mithras unknown on Western monuments -the horseman whose steed tramples beneath its feet a prostrate foe. † Rostowzew has shown that the gold and silver ornaments found in such profusion in the tumuli of Southern Russia ‡ furnish evidence that this

* Представленіе о монархической власти въ Скиѳіи и на Боспорѣ, St Petersburg, 1913. A summary of these researches was read by Prof. Rostowzew to the International Historical Congress in London.

† A unique coin of Trapezus (Trebizond) shows Mithras on horseback between Cautes and Cautopates (pl. III, 2), and establishes the identity of the God, who was formerly thought to be Mên, on such coins as those shown on pl. III, 3, 4.

See Mr E. H. Minns' 'Scythians and Greeks.' Cambridge, 1913.