Table Of ContentTh e Mind of Mithraists
Scientifi c Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation
Series Editors: Luther H. Martin, William W. McCorkle and Donald Wiebe
Scientifi c Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation publishes cutting-edge
research in the new and growing fi eld of scientifi c studies in religion. Its aim
is to publish empirical, experimental, historical and ethnographic research on
religious thought, behaviour, and institutional structures.
Th e series works with a broad notion of “scientifi c” that will include innovative
work on understanding religion(s), both past and present. With an emphasis
on the cognitive science of religion, the series includes complementary
approaches to the study of religion, such as psychology and computer
modelling of religious data. Titles seek to provide explanatory accounts for
the religious behaviors under review, both past and present.
Titles Published:
Religion in Science Fiction , Steven Hrotic
Th e Mind of Mithraists
Historical and Cognitive Studies in the
Roman Cult of Mithras
Luther H. Martin
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published 2015
Paperback edition fi rst published 2016
© Luther H. Martin 2015
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1988, to be identifi ed as the Author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-8419-9
PB: 978-1-4742-8869-9
ePDF: 978-1-4725-8420-5
ePub: 978-1-4725-8421-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Luther H., 1937-
The mind of Mithraists : historical and cognitive studies in
the Roman cult of Mithras / Luther H. Martin.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4725-8419-9 (hardback)
1. Mithraism. 2. Cognition and culture. I. Title.
BL1585.M25 2015
299’.15 – dc23
2014025797
Series: Scientifi c Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword ix
Introduction 1
1 Roman Mithraism and Christianity 9
2 Refl ections on the Mithraic Tauroctony as Cult Scene 21
3 Th e Roman Cult of Mithras: A Cognitive Perspective 29
4 Ritual Competence and Mithraic Ritual 41
5 Th e Ecology of Th reat Detection and Precautionary Response
from the Perspectives of Evolutionary Psychology, Cognitive
Science, and Historiography: Th e Case of the Roman
Cults of Mithras 57
6 Th e Landscapes and Mindscape of the Roman Cult of Mithras 75
7 Cult Migration, Social Formation, and Religious Identity in
Graeco-Roman Antiquity: Th e Curious Case of Roman Mithraism 89
8 Th e Amor and Psyche Relief in the Mithraeum of Capua Vetere:
An Exceptional Case of Graeco-Roman Syncretism or an Ordinary
Instance of Human Cognition? 107
9 Th e (Surprising Absence of a) Mithras Cult in Roman Egypt 119
Notes 128
References 150
Index 188
List of Illustrations
Frontispiece : Head of Mithras i
Chapter 1 Th e Mithraeum at Marino (Photo by L. Martin) 16
Chapter 2 Mithraic tauroctony from the “Mithraeum of the Circus
Maximus,” Rome (Photo by L. Martin) 22
Chapter 4 Mithraeum of the “Seven Spheres,” Ostia (Photo by L. Martin) 47
Chapter 8 Th e Amor and Psyche relief in the Mithraeum of
Capua Vetere (Photo by Patricia A. Johnston) 108
Acknowledgments
Th is volume reprints essays on Mithraism I have written since 1989. It is
impossible to thank by name all of my colleagues who have commented on,
contributed to, and criticized in progressum the essays here collected but I have
benefi ted from all and many. I should, however, like especially to thank two
longtime colleagues whose input has been especially important (whether
or not they have agreed with the fi nal results). First is my longtime friend
and colleague at the University of Vermont, Professor William E. Paden, and
second is my long-distance friend and colleague at the University of Toronto,
Donald Wiebe. I would like especially to thank Professors Roger Beck, also at
the University of Toronto and the acknowledged “Dean of Mithraic Studies,”
for his support of my work and his friendship, and Aleš Chalupa, of Masaryk
University, for inviting me to the position of Visiting Professor at his university
and for our ongoing conversations concerning the Roman cult of Mithras.
I would like to thank my former (undergraduate) student Dr. Steven Hrotic,
who was my editorial assistant in the preparation of this volume. His general
understanding of my work and his careful eye for detail have greatly facilitated
the preparation of this volume for publication. And, of course, I must express
my appreciation to Lalle Pursglove and Anna MacDiarmid, respectively,
Commissioning Editor and Editorial Assistant at Bloomsbury Press, who
have so capably shepherded this volume into print and Avinash Singh for his
remarkably astute and forbearing project management. Finally, I would like
to thank Patricia Johnston for permission to reprint her photograph of the
Psyche and Amor relief from the mithraeum of Capua Vetere, Italy.
With the exception of Chapters 6 and 7 (previously unpublished), the essays
in this volume have been reprinted in the form in which they fi rst appeared
with only typos corrected (although it is imprudent to claim that all have
been fi nally identifi ed) and references updated and reformatted. I should like
to acknowledge the original place of publication and to thank the respective
publishers for their permission to reprint these articles in this volume
viii Acknowledgments
(with the exception of C hapter 2, for which my eff orts to contact the original
publisher, “L’erma” di Bretschneider, remain unanswered).
C hap. 1. “ Roman Mithraism and Christianity.” N umen 36 ( 1989 ), 2 – 15 .
Chap. 2. “Refl ections on the Mithraic Tauroctony as Cult Scene.” In: S tudies
in Mithraism , edited by. J. R. Hinnells , Storia delle Religioni 9 , 217 – 224 . Rome :
“L’erma” di Bretschneider , 1994 .
C hap. 3. “ Th e Roman Cult of Mithras: A Cognitive Perspective.” Religio.
Revue pro Religionistisiku 14 ( 2006 ), 131 – 146 .
Chap. 4. “Ritual Competence and Mithraic Ritual.” In R eligion as a Human
Capacity: A Festschrift in Honor of E. Th omas Lawson , edited by T. Light and
B. Wilson , 245 – 263 . Leiden : E. J. Brill , 2004 .
C hap. 5. “ Th e Ecology of Th reat Detection and Precautionary Response
from the Perspectives of Evolutionary Psychology and Historiography: Th e
Case of the Roman Cults of Mithras.” M TSR 25.4/5 ( 2013 ), 431 – 450 .
C hap. 8. “ Th e Amor and Psyche Relief in the Mithraeum of Capua Vetere:
An Exceptional Case of Graeco-Roman Syncretism or an Ordinary Instance of
Human Cognition?” In Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia , edited by P. A. Johnston
and G. C asadio , 277 – 289 . Austin : University of Texas Press , 2009 .
C hap. 9. “ Th e (Surprising Absence of a) Mithras Cult in Roman Egypt.”
In A lternative Voices: A Plurality Approach for Religious Studies , edited by
A. Adogame , M. Echtler , O. Freiberger , 100 – 115 . Göttingen : Vandenhoeck
and Ruprecht , 2013 .
Foreword
Long ago a teacher of mine told me that if history isn’t exciting it probably isn’t
true. Luther Martin has written much exciting history and no dull history, and
so he has surely met this necessary condition for historiographical veracity.
Of course, it’s not just—or even primarily—a matter of getting the facts right,
but of fi nding and marshaling the germane ones and, above all, of posing the
proper questions.
Luther Martin has brought to the study of the Roman cult of Mithras not
only his sense of scholarly adventure, but also his deep learning and experience
in the academic study of religion. He has been a forceful but always properly
skeptical proponent of the burgeoning new subfi eld of the Cognitive Science
of Religion, and it is for this expertise that ancient historians with an open
mind will value this collection of essays. Equally, scholars of religion will profi t
from Martin’s excellent grasp of ancient history and of the societies of the
Hellenistic and Roman Imperial ages.
Everyone has a favorite. Mine is Martin’s exploration of the mental
construction of space and spaces in the essay “Landscape and Mindscape … ”
(C hapter 6) , since cognitive mapping and the cognized environments of the
Mithraists is a special concern of mine. Others will have other favorites, but
I confi dently predict that there will be no one (except the very dull, who
will probably not open this book in any case) who will not fi nd something,
probably several things, to treasure.
R oger Beck
Professor of Classics Emeritus
University of Toronto
