PART
2 – Ch.XIV.12
(KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on
in
the country of the Hyperboreans)
XIV. 12.
Prometheus as theos pyrphoros,
Mithras genitor luminis, Deus Arimanius.
Prometheus had been venerated as a god even in very remote prehistoric
times (Eschyl, Prom vinctus, 92).
The ancient Pelasgian theology had eternized, through dogma and mysteries, the
legendary merits and suffering of this Christ of the ancient world.
We find traces of the cult of Prometheus as a god also on the territory
of old Hellada.
Sophocles presents
Prometheus under the name theos pyrphoros, the god who fetched
the fire (Oed. Col. v. 55-56). And Pausanias
writes: “In the Academy of Athens there is an altar consecrated to Prometheus.
On this altar, at the feast of the god, the people light their torches, and
with them they race through the entire city. If, during this emulation race, someone’s
torch goes out, he must cede his victory to the one behind him” (lib. I. 30.
2).
But the cult of Prometheus under the name of Mithras, Mithras genitor luminis, deus invictus Mithras, appears to
have been widespread in the ancient Pelasgian lands from near the Istru, which
during Roman domination were known under the name of Dacia, Pannonia and Noric (Corpus Inscriptionum latinarum, Vol. III.
The origin and history of the cult of Mithra in those parts have still remained
an enigma to this day.
On the figurative monuments from the Roman epoch, the god Mithra is
shown as a youth of an extraordinary beauty, sacrificing a bull in a cave. On
these sacrificial tablets the god appears dressed in the national Dacian costume, with a somewhat longish shirt, girdled around
the waist and having on his shoulders a fluttering mantle, which reaches lower
than his knees. The god wears on his head the national Dacian cap, with the pointed, rounded top, bent forward,
and on his shoulders fall his long tresses of hair, as per Pelasgian custom, or
a fine curly hair. He vigorously grabs with his left hand one horn of the bull,
or his muzzle, lifting its head; with his left knee he pushes its back down to
the ground, and with his right hand he stabs the animal in the throat, while at
the same time turning his eyes towards the sky [1].
[1. In
various archaeological descriptions published about the Mithraic monuments of
Dacia, Pannonia, Noric, Italy and Gaul, is often mentioned, but in an entirely
superficial way, the Phrygian cap (Phrygia
tiara, die phrygische Mutze) of the god and his half-Asian costume (asiatische
Tracht in ihrer griechischen Stilisierung). But the Dacian cap, as it appears on the figurative monuments of Trajan’s
epoch, differs from the Phrygian cap and the tiara of the Persians, by having a
very characteristic shape].
On both sides of the god are figured two adolescent youths dressed in
the same Dacian national costume; one holding in his hand a torch with its
lighted end upwards, the other with its lighted end downwards. Probably these
Cautopates represented the rising and the setting sun, or Phosphoros and
Hesperos. Both the god and the youths figured on these bas-reliefs present some
Pelasgian heroic and noble types. Nothing Asian is to be seen, either in the
expression of the figures, or in their costumes.
Apart from the figures of the god and the Cautopats we also see
represented on these Mithraic monuments various other characteristic scenes
from the life of the god, various topographical images, attributes and symbolic
signs, out of which some are mentioned in the ancient legends of Prometheus,
others in the Romanian legends.
Of these symbolic accessories and ornaments, we shall mention here the
most remarkable, important for the origin and history of the cult of Mithra.
On a bas-relief from Rome, the god Mithra is shown blowing with his
mouth in order to light the fire on an altar, while he is surrounded on both
sides by snakes, one of which rears
up to bite him on the ribs (Lajard,
pl. LXXI).
On another bas-relief from
A particular importance though is presented by another bas-relief,
discovered in the ruins of the temple of Mithra from Sarmizegetusa. Here two
groups of altars are figured near the head of the god two, one on the right and
the other on the left. Each group is composed of three altars (Arch.-epigr. Mitth. VII. p. 207. Six
altars have been also discovered in the sanctuary of the god Mithra at
Deutsch-Altenburg, CIL. III. 4414). The first altar is bigger, the others
gradually smaller. They are the two groups of cyclopean altars about which we
talked previously.
Another analogous sculpture is in the museum Battyani at Alba-Iulia.
Here seven altars are figured above
the cave and near each altar there is a wooden post topped with a Dacian cap (Lajard, pl. LXXIX. 1). This is another symbolic expression of the
fact that the seven altars were on the summit of a Dacian mountain.
Another geographical indication about the region where the memorable
scenes from the life of Mithra take place is expressed by the mythological
figure of an important river divinity. Here
the god of the river appears stretched on the ground (Lajard, pl. LXXVIII), and having a long and fluid beard, parting in
two in the middle (Arch.-epigr. Mitth.
II. p. 119).
It is without doubt the representation of the Istru, the great and divine river, about which the ancient
geographical traditions said that it parted in two branches near the mountains
of
The sacred tablets of the god Mithra also had, as we see, a
topographical character.
Apart from the cave of sacrifice, they also represented the sacred
ground on which Mithra’s deeds had taken place.
On the figurative monuments of the Roman epoch the god Mithra is shown
having various attributes.
Some of these attributes reminded the devotees various episodes from the
life of the god, while others symbolized his particular virtues or qualities.
Of all these emblems, the raven
is one of the most characteristic and traditional symbols presented by the
Mithraic monuments. On one of these sculptures a raven is figured entering into
the cave through a hole or a break in the rock (Lajard, pl. LXXV). The same raven is shown on another Mithraic
monument in an entirely domestic attitude. Entering into the cave through the
hole or break in the rock, it bends its head and calls to Mithra, who
sacrifices the bull (Idem. Pl. LXXXVII). This conveys a message.
On another Mithraic monument from the villa Torlonia, a winged horse is figured near the bust
of the sun (Idem, pl. LXXXII), horse also mentioned in the folk Romanian songs
(Densusianu Aron, Revista critica
literara, III. 63). The country of the winged horses was, according to ancient
legends, Scythia, especially the
regions from near the Istru (Pliny,
I. X. 70.1; Hesiod, Theog. v. 282-283).
Other figures show the god Mithra with a key in each hand (Lajard,
pl. LXXI). These are “the keys of heaven”, also mentioned by the Mithraic
Romanian carols. Mithra appears on these monuments as the god “claviger” with the keys, he has the
role of Ianus, who opens and closes the sky, the clouds, the earth and the sea
(Ovid. Fast. I. v. 116 seqq).
A marble statue discovered at
[2. On some
bas-reliefs, especially on those of Dacia, the cave of the god Mithra is
surrounded with a laurel or olive crown.
It is the symbol of victory, or of
his release from his chains, also mentioned by Apollodorus (II. 5. 11. 12). Among the accessories figured in
Mithra’s cave can also be seen a boat
with a man in it, emerging from the waves of some water (Lajard, pl. XCIV). It seems to be the ark of Deucalion, built on the counsel of Prometheus].
During the Roman epoch the mysteries of Mithra had seven grades of
initiation called: Corax, Gryphus,
Miles, Leo, Perses, Heliodromus and finally Pater patratus, which constituted the highest of the Mithraic hierarchy
[3].
[3. In the Epistle 107 to Laetas, Hieronymus
mentions the sanctuary of Mithra at
It seems though that in the beginning these names had been only some
popular epithets of the god Mithra.
Corax, or the raven
(corvus, Rom. corb), appears figured on almost all the Mithraic bas-reliefs. In
Romanian folk songs the hero, who represents Prometheus in the cave or prison,
is usually called Corbea. In the
Romanian legends the ravens bring food to this imprisoned martyr (Burada, O calatorie in Dobrogea, p.
153), or, according to other versions, a raven comes to the window of the
imprisoned hero (this time called Gruia),
sent by his father to search for his son all over the world (Francu, Romanii din muntii apuseni, p.
209).
The second grade of initiation in Mithra’s mysteries has the name of Gryphus, meaning griffon.
The mythological vultures called griffons symbolized, as we know, the
country of the Hyperboreans. On the cloths worn by those initiated in Mithra’s
mysteries, as Apuleius tells us,
were figured also griffons, called by him gryphes
hyperborei (Metam. XI. Ed. Garnier,
It seems though that the name Gryphus
is only an altered Latin form, and that the original idea had been in the
beginning completely different.
In various Romanian songs the hero who represents chained Prometheus has
also the name of Gruia, Lat. Grus (Corcea, Balade poporale, p. 88).
It is a historic probability therefore that Gryphus, exactly like Corax,
was only a simple Latinised form of a name given to the hero Mithra in folk
traditions.
The fifth grade of the mysteries of Mithra, according to Hieronymus, was called Perses.
Under the name Perses, Mithra also appears at Porphyrius (De antro Nympharum, 16), and the poet Statius mentions the
The origin of this name has remained a mystery to this day.
The word “Perses” has not at all the character of an ethnic name.
In the Romanian folk legends the hero suffers “in the prison of Opris” (Teodorescu, Poesii pop. p. 517; Tocilescu, Materialuri folklore. I. 147. 1256). It is the same
underground place called by the poet Statius “Persei antri”. It is the same word, identical, from the point of
view of the legends, with the literary Latin form of “Perses”.
In the theology of the Pelasgians from the
In various traditional Romanian songs, the tortured, innocent hero,
Prometheus of antiquity, is celebrated under the name of Marza, or Mirza (Bibicescu, Poesii pop. din
Transilvania, p. 329; Catana, Balade
poporale, p. 17, 18). It is the same name as the Greek Mithras, with the two
middle consonants changing places. Mithras instead of Mirthas
= Mirsas.
In the Doric dialect the letter th had also the sound of s.
(In historical documents Mursa or Marsa is the name of a Romanian noble
family from the country of Fagaras).
Prometheus as the god Mithra also had various epithets.
He was called “deus invictus”,
the brave god. So, he must have sustained some tough battles, from which he had
emerged victorious.
In the Roman inscriptions from
But a particular historical significance has his epithet of Arimanius.
On two inscriptions from Aquineum (Buda), Mithra is called DEVS ARIMANIVS (C. I. L. III, nr. 3414,
3415), meaning the god from the nation of the Arimii (Arimani) or the ancient Ramleni (TN – see Ch.VII).
Also as DEVS ARIMANIVS
appears Mithra on an inscription from Rome (C. I. L. VI, nr. 47) and it is
important the fact that this appellation is given him by Pater patrum himself,
the head of the Mithraic religion in the entire empire.
Without doubt this glorification of Mithra as Arimanius had also the
character of a religious propaganda. The inscriptions with Deus Arimanius from
Around 307ad the Roman emperors from the houses called “Jovii” and “Herculii” considered Mithra as their ancestral god, the patron of
their reign or their empire, fautor
imperii sui (C. I. L. III, nr. 4413). To the family “Jovii” belonged at that time: Diocletian,
born in
And to the family “Herculii”
belonged Maximianus the old, born at
Sirimium, and his adoptive son Constantius
Chlor, whose father was from Dacia, from across the Danube (Trebelius Pollionis, Divus Claudius, c.
13), and Constantine the Great, the
son of Constantius Chlor.
As a national god, as the protector of the empire and of the Roman
people, Mithra appears on an inscription from Apulum, where a dedication is
made to him: pro salute imperii
populique Romani et ordinis coloniae Apuli (C.I. L. III, nr. 1114).
The ancients had entirely confused ideas about the origin, character and
extent of the cult of Mithra in the Roman provinces. They had no idea that the
regions so-called barbarian from near the Istru had formed in a very remote
time the sacred cradle of Mithra’s religion.
According to Lactantius Placidus
from the 6th century ad, and without even mentioning here Plutarch,
the religion of Mithra originated in Persia, from where it had passed into
Phrygia, and from Phrygia to the Romans (in Operae of Papinius Statius, v. 717-720). But in
[4. The cult of the god Mithra had been
introduced to
According to
the theological books of the Persians, Mithra was a subordinate divinity,
entirely distinct from Ahriman, the
latter being considered as the principle of evil, as a demon of the shadows.
And according
to Herodotus (
The largest number of Mithraic inscriptions outside of
The history of the cult of Mithra belongs since its inception to the
Pelasgian race and territory from near the Istru.
Here echo even today the traditional songs about the suffering of
Prometheus as a hero, and the religious hymns of Mithra as a god [5].
[5. The
sanctuaries consecrated to the god Mithra were underground.
Such an
underground
To Mithra as god of the fire was consecrated in
ancient times the holly day called even today by the Romanian people Sam-Medru, Sam-Miedru (Saint Dumitru in the Christian calendar, 26 October). Even today,
in some places, fires are lighted on the eve of Sam-Miedru, and boys gather around
them and shout “Come! to the fire of Sam-Miedru” (Ionneanu, Superstitii, p. 56).
The Latin people also celebrated on the day
of V Id. Oct (11 Oct) an ancient national rustic holly day called “Meditrinalia”. Varo and Festus, without
bothering to research the historical character of this day, derive this name
from mederi, to heal. But in fact Meditrinalia, by its name and the month
in which was celebrated, appears to have been the same religious festivity
which the Romanian people call Sam-Medru
TN – In Romanian
language Saint = Sfant = Sant = Sam (the last
two in folk idiom), while sfantu or santu means the saint. It seems to me that even the name of Dumitru can be explained as deriving
from Santu Mitru = San T(D)u mitru ].