The dominant historical fact in western Asia in ancient times was the
opposition between the Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations, which was
itself only an episode in the great struggle that was constantly in
progress between the Orient and the Occident in those countries. In the
first enthusiasm of their conquests, the Persians extended their dominion
as far as the cities of Ionia and the islands of the Ægean Sea, but their
power of expansion was broken at the foot of the Acropolis. One hundred and
fifty years later, Alexander destroyed the empire of the Achemenides and
carried Hellenic culture to the banks of the Indus. After two and a half
centuries the Parthians under the Arsacid dynasty advanced to the borders
of Syria, and Mithradates Eupator, an alleged descendant of Darius,
penetrated to the heart of Greece at the head of his Persian nobility from
Pontus.
After the flood came the ebb. The reconstructed Roman empire of Augustus
soon reduced Armenia, Cappadocia and even the kingdom of the Parthians to a
kind of vassalage. But after the middle of the third century the Sassanid
dynasty restored the power of Persia and revived its ancient pretensions.
From that time until the triumph of Islam it was one long {136} duel
between the two rival states, in which now one was victorious and now the
other, while neither was ever decisively beaten. An ambassador of king
Narses to Galerius called these two states "the two eyes of the human
race."[1]
The "invincible" star of the Persians might wane and vanish, but only to
reappear in greater glory. The political and military strength displayed by
this nation through the centuries was the result of its high intellectual
and moral qualities. Its original culture was always hostile to such an
assimilation as that experienced in different degrees by the Aryans of
Phrygia, the Semites of Syria and the Hamites of Egypt. Hellenism and
Iranism--if I may use that term--were two equally noble adversaries but
differently educated, and they always remained separated by instinctive
racial hostility as much as by hereditary opposition of interests.
Nevertheless, when two civilizations are in contact for more than a
thousand years, numerous exchanges are bound to occur. The influence
exercised by Hellenism as far as the uplands of Central Asia has frequently
been pointed out,[2] but the prestige retained by Persia throughout the
ages and the extent of area influenced by its energy has not perhaps been
shown with as much accuracy. For even if Mazdaism was the highest
expression of Persian genius and its influence in consequence mainly
religious, yet it was not exclusively so.
After the fall of the Achemenides the memory of their empire long haunted
Alexander's successors. Not only did the dynasties which claimed to be
descended from Darius, and which ruled over Pontus, {137} Cappadocia and
Commagene, cultivate political traditions that brought them nearer to their
supposed ancestors, but those traditions were partly adopted even by the
Seleucides and the Ptolemies, the legitimate heirs of the ancient masters
of Asia. People were fond of recalling the ideals of past grandeur and
sought to realize them in the present. In that manner several institutions
were transmitted to the Roman emperors through the agency of the Asiatic
monarchies. The institution of the _amici Augusti_, for instance, the
appointed friends and intimate counselors of the rulers, adopted in Italy
the forms in use at the court of the Diadochi, who had themselves imitated
the ancient organization of the palace of the Great Kings.[3]
The custom of carrying the sacred fire before the Cæsars as an emblem of
the perpetuity of their power, dated back to Darius and with other Persian
traditions passed on to the dynasties that divided the empire of Alexander.
There is a striking similarity not only between the observance of the
Cæsars and the practice of the Oriental monarchs, but also between the
beliefs that they held. The continuity of the political and religious
tradition cannot be doubted.[4] As the court ceremonial and the internal
history of the Hellenistic kingdoms become better known we shall be able to
outline with greater precision the manner in which the divided and
diminished heritage of the Achemenides, after generations of rulers, was
finally left to those Occidental sovereigns who called themselves the
sacrosanct lords of the world as Artaxerxes had done.[5] It may not be
generally known that the habit of welcoming friends with a kiss was a
ceremony in the {138} Oriental formulary before it became a familiar custom
in Europe.[6]
It is very difficult to trace the hidden paths by which pure ideas travel
from one people to another. But certain it is that at the beginning of our
era certain Mazdean conceptions had already spread outside of Asia. The
extent of the influence of Parseeism upon the beliefs of Israel under the
Achemenides cannot be determined, but its existence is undeniable.[7] Some
of its doctrines, as for instance those relating to angels and demons, the
end of the world and the final resurrection, were propagated everywhere in
the basin of the Mediterranean as a consequence of the diffusion of Jewish
colonies.
On the other hand, ever since the conquests of Cyrus and Darius, the active
attention of the Greeks had been drawn toward the doctrines and religious
practices of the new masters of the Orient.[8] A number of legends
representing Pythagoras, Democritus and other philosophers as disciples of
the magi prove the prestige of that powerful sacerdotal class. The
Macedonian conquest, which placed the Greeks in direct relations with
numerous votaries of Mazdaism, gave a new impetus to works treating that
religion, and the great scientific movement inaugurated by Aristotle caused
many scholars to look into the doctrines taught by the Persian subjects of
the Seleucides. We know from a reliable source that the works catalogued
under the name of Zoroaster in the library of Alexandria contained two
million lines. This immense body of sacred literature was bound to attract
the attention of scholars and to call forth the reflections of
philosophers. The dim and dubious science that reached {139} even the lower
classes under the name of "magic" was to a considerable extent of Persian
origin, as its name indicates, and along with physician's recipes and
thaumaturgic processes it imparted some theological doctrines in a confused
fashion.[9]
This explains why certain institutions and beliefs of the Persians had
found imitators and adepts in the Greco-Oriental world long before the
Romans had gained a foothold in Asia. Their influence was indirect, secret,
frequently indiscernible, but it was certain. The most active agencies in
the diffusion of Mazdaism as of Judaism seem to have been colonies of
believers who had emigrated far from the mother country. There was a
Persian dispersion similar to that of the Israelites. Communities of magi
were established not only in eastern Asia Minor, but in Galatia, Phrygia,
Lydia and even in Egypt. Everywhere they remained attached to their customs
and beliefs with persistent tenacity.[10]
When Rome extended her conquests into Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, the
influence of Persia became much more direct. Superficial contact with the
Mazdean populations began with the wars against Mithradates, but it did not
become frequent and lasting until the first century of our era. During that
century the empire gradually extended its limits to the upper Euphrates,
and thereby absorbed all the uplands of Anatolia and Commagene south of the
Taurus. The native dynasties which had fostered the secular isolation of
those distant countries in spite of the state of vassalage to which they
had been reduced disappeared one after another. The Flavians constructed
through those hitherto almost inaccessible regions an immense network {140}
of roads that were as important to Rome as the railways of Turkestan or of
Siberia are to modern Russia. At the same time Roman legions camped on the
banks of the Euphrates and in the mountains of Armenia. Thus all the little
Mazdean centers scattered in Cappadocia and Pontus were forced into
constant relation with the Latin world, and on the other hand the
disappearance of the buffer states made the Roman and Parthian empires
neighboring powers in Trajan's time (98-117 A. D.).
From these conquests and annexations in Asia Minor and Syria dates the
sudden propagation of the Persian mysteries of Mithra in the Occident. For
even though a congregation of their votaries seems to have existed at Rome
under Pompey as early as 67 B. C., the real diffusion of the mysteries
began with the Flavians toward the end of the first century of our era.
They became more and more prominent under the Antonines and the Severi, and
remained the most important cult of paganism until the end of the fourth
century. Through them as a medium the original doctrines of Mazdaism were
widely propagated in every Latin province, and in order to appreciate the
influence of Persia upon the Roman creeds, we must now give them our
careful attention.
However, it must be said that the growing influence of Persia did not
manifest itself solely in the religious sphere. After the accession of the
Sassanid dynasty (228 A. D.) the country once more became conscious of its
originality, again resumed the cultivation of national traditions,
reorganized the hierarchy of its official clergy and recovered the
political cohesion which had been wanting under the Parthians. It felt
{141} and showed its superiority over the neighboring empire that was then
torn by factions, thrown upon the mercy of manifestoes, and ruined
economically and morally. The studies now being made in the history of that
period show more and more that debilitated Rome had become the imitator of
Persia.
In the opinion of contemporaries the court of Diocletian, prostrating
itself before a master who was regarded as the equal of God, with its
complicated hierarchy and crowd of eunuchs that disgraced it, was an
imitation of the court of the Sassanides. Galerius declared in unmistakable
terms that Persian absolutism must be introduced in his empire,[11] and the
ancient Cæsarism founded on the will of the people seemed about to be
transformed into a sort of caliphate.
Recent discoveries also throw light upon a powerful artistic school that
developed in the Parthian empire and later in that of the Sassanides and
which grew up independently of the Greek centers of production. Even if it
took certain models from the Hellenic sculpture or architecture, it
combined them with Oriental motives into a decoration of exuberant
richness. Its field of influence extended far beyond Mesopotamia into the
south of Syria where it has left monuments of unequalled splendor. The
radiance of that brilliant center undoubtedly illuminated Byzantium, the
barbarians of the north, and even China.[12]
The Persian Orient, then, exerted a dominant influence on the political
institutions and artistic tastes of the Romans as well as on their ideas
and beliefs. The propagation of the religion of Mithra, which always
proudly proclaimed its Persian origin, was accompanied by a number of
parallel influences of the {142} people from which it had issued. Never,
not even during the Mohammedan invasions, had Europe a narrower escape from
becoming Asiatic than when Diocletian officially recognized Mithra as the
protector of the reconstructed empire.[13] The time when that god seemed to
be establishing his authority over the entire civilized world was one of
the critical phases in the moral history of antiquity. An irresistible
invasion of Semitic and Mazdean conceptions nearly succeeded in permanently
overwhelming the Occidental spirit. Even after Mithra had been vanquished
and expelled from Christianized Rome, Persia did not disarm. The work of
conversion in which Mithraism had failed was taken up by Manicheism, the
heir to its cardinal doctrines, and until the Middle Ages Persian dualism
continued to cause bloody struggles in the ancient Roman provinces.
* * * * *
Just as we cannot understand the character of the mysteries of Isis and
Serapis without studying the circumstances accompanying their creation by
the Ptolemies, so we cannot appreciate the causes of the power attained by
the mysteries of Mithra, unless we go far back to their origin.
Here the subject is unfortunately more obscure. The ancient authors tell us
almost nothing about the origin of Mithra. One point on which they all
agree is that he was a Persian god, but this we should know from the Avesta
even if they had not mentioned it. But how did he get to Italy from the
Persian uplands?
Two scant lines of Plutarch are the most explicit document we have on the
subject. He narrates incidentally that the pirates from Asia Minor
vanquished {143} by Pompey in 67 performed strange sacrifices on Olympus, a
volcano of Lycia, and practiced occult rites, among others those of Mithra
which, he says, "exist to the present day and were first taught by
them."[14] Lactantius Placidus, a commentator on Statius and a mediocre
authority, also tells us that the cult passed from the Persians to the
Phrygians and from the Phrygians to the Romans.[15]
These two authors agree then in fixing in Asia Minor the origin of this
Persian religion that later spread over the Occident, and in fact various
indications direct us to that country. The frequency of the name
Mithradates, for instance, in the dynasties of Pontus, Cappadocia, Armenia
and Commagene, connected with the Achemenides by fictitious genealogies,
shows the devotion of those kings to Mithra.
As we see, the Mithraism that was revealed to the Romans at the time of
Pompey had established itself in the Anatolian monarchies during the
preceding period, which was an epoch of intense moral and religious unrest.
Unfortunately we have no monuments of that period of its history. The
absence of direct testimony on the development of Mazdean sects during the
last three centuries before our era prevents us from gaining exact
knowledge of the Parseeism of Asia Minor.
None of the temples dedicated to Mithra in that religion have been
examined.[16] The inscriptions mentioning his name are as yet few and
insignificant, so that it is only by indirect means that we can arrive at
conclusions about this primitive cult. The only way to explain its
distinguishing features in the Occident is to study the environment in
which it originated.
During the domination of the Achemenides eastern {144} Asia Minor was
colonized by the Persians. The uplands of Anatolia resembled those of
Persia in climate and soil, and were especially adapted to the raising of
horses.[17] In Cappadocia and even in Pontus the aristocracy who owned the
soil belonged to the conquering nation. Under the various governments which
followed after the death of Alexander, those landlords remained the real
masters of the country, chieftains of clans governing the canton where they
had their domains, and, on the outskirts of Armenia at least, they retained
the hereditary title of satraps through all political vicissitudes until
the time of Justinian, thus recalling their Persian origin.[18] This
military and feudal aristocracy furnished Mithradates Eupator a
considerable number of the officers who helped him in his long defiance of
Rome, and later it defended the threatened independence of Armenia against
the enterprises of the Cæsars. These warriors worshiped Mithra as the
protecting genius of their arms, and this is the reason why Mithra always,
even in the Latin world, remained the "invincible" god, the tutelary deity
of armies, held in special honor by warriors.
Besides the Persian nobility a Persian clergy had also become established
in the peninsula. It officiated in famous temples, at Zela in Pontus and
Hierocæsarea in Lydia. Magi, called _magousaioi_ or _pyrethes_
(firelighters) were scattered over the Levant. Like the Jews, they retained
their national customs and traditional rites with such scrupulous loyalty
that Bardesanes of Edessa cited them as an example in his attempt to refute
the doctrines of astrology and to show that a nation can retain the same
customs in different climates.[19] We know their religion sufficiently to
be {145} certain that the Syrian author had good grounds for attributing
that conservative spirit to them. The sacrifices of the _pyrethes_ which
Strabo observed in Cappadocia recall all the peculiarities of the Avestan
liturgy. The same prayers were recited before the altar of the fire while
the priest held the sacred fasces (_bareçman_); the same offerings were
made of milk, oil and honey; and the same precautions were taken to prevent
the priest's breath from polluting the divine flame. Their gods were
practically those of orthodox Mazdaism. They worshiped Ahura Mazda, who had
to them remained a divinity of the sky as Zeus and Jupiter had been
originally. Below him they venerated deified abstractions (such as
Vohumano, "good mind," and Ameretat, "immortality") from which the religion
of Zoroaster made its Amshaspends, the archangels surrounding the Most
High.[20] Finally they sacrificed to the spirits of nature, the Yazatas:
for instance, Anahita or Anaites the goddess of the waters--that made
fertile the fields; Atar, the personification of fire; and especially
Mithra, the pure genius of light.
Thus the basis of the religion of the magi of Asia Minor was Mazdaism,
somewhat changed from that of the Avesta, and in certain respects holding
closer to the primitive nature worship of the Aryans, but nevertheless a
clearly characterized and distinctive Mazdaism, which was to remain the
most solid foundation for the greatness of the mysteries of Mithra in the
Occident.
Recent discoveries[21] of bilingual inscriptions have succeeded in
establishing the fact that the language used, or at least written, by the
Persian colonies of Asia Minor was not their ancient Aryan idiom, but {146}
Aramaic, which was a Semitic dialect. Under the Achemenides this was the
diplomatic and commercial language of all countries west of the Tigris. In
Cappadocia and Armenia it remained the literary and probably also the
liturgical language until it was slowly supplanted by Greek during the
Hellenistic period. The very name _magousaioi_ ([Greek: magousaioi]) given
to the magi in those countries is an exact transcription of a Semitic
plural.[22] This phenomenon, surprising at first sight, is explained by the
history of the _magousaioi_ who emigrated to Asia Minor. They did not come
there directly from Persepolis or Susa, but from Mesopotamia. Their
religion had been deeply influenced by the speculations of the powerful
clergy officiating in the temples of Babylon. The learned theology of the
Chaldeans imposed itself on the primitive Mazdaism, which was a collection
of traditions and rites rather than a body of doctrines. The divinities of
the two religions became identified, their legends connected, and the
Semitic astrology, the result of long continued scientific observations,
superimposed itself on the naturalistic myths of the Persians. Ahura Mazda
was assimilated to Bel, Anahita to Ishtar, and Mithra to Shamash, the solar
god. For that reason Mithra was commonly called _Sol invictus_ in the Roman
mysteries, and an abstruse and a complicated astronomic symbolism was
always part of the teachings revealed to candidates for initiation and
manifested itself also in the artistic embellishments of the temple.
In connection with a cult from Commagene we can observe rather closely how
the fusion of Parseeism with Semitic and Anatolian creeds took place,
because {147} in those regions the form of religious transformations was at
all times syncretic. On a mountain top in the vicinity of a town named
Doliche, a deity was worshiped who after a number of transformations became
a Jupiter Protector of the Roman armies. Originally this god, who was
believed to have discovered the use of iron, seems to have been brought to
Commagene by a tribe of blacksmiths, the Chalybes, who had come from the
north.[23] He was represented standing on a steer and holding in his hand a
two-edged ax, an ancient symbol venerated in Crete during the Mycenean age
and found also at Labranda in Caria and all over Asia Minor.[24] The ax
symbolized the god's mastery over the lightning which splits asunder the
trees of the forest amidst the din of storms. Once established on Syrian
soil, this genius of thunder became identified with some local Baal and his
cult took up all the Semitic features. After the conquests of Cyrus and the
founding of the Persian domination, this "Lord of the heavens" was readily
confounded with Ahura Mazda, who was likewise "the full circle of heaven,"
according to a definition of Herodotus,[25] and whom the Persians also
worshiped on mountain tops. When a half Persian, half Hellenic dynasty
succeeded Alexander in Commagene, this Baal became a _Zeus Oromasdes_
([Greek: Zeus Ôromasdês], Ahura Mazda) residing in the sublime ethereal
regions. A Greek inscription speaks of the celestial thrones "on which this
supreme divinity receives the souls of its worshipers."[26] In the Latin
countries "Jupiter Caelus" remained at the head of the Mazdean
pantheon,[27] and in all the provinces the temples of {148} "Jupiter
Dolichenus" were erected beside those of Mithra, and the two remained in
the closest relations.[28]
The same series of transformations took place elsewhere with a number of
other gods.[29] The Mithra worship was thus formed, in the main, by a
combination of Persian beliefs with Semitic theology, incidentally
including certain elements from the native cults of Asia Minor. The Greeks
later translated the names of the Persian divinities into their language
and imposed certain forms of their mysteries on the Mazdean cult.[30]
Hellenic art lent to the Yazatas that idealized form in which it liked to
represent the immortals, and philosophy, especially that of the Stoics,
endeavored to discover its own physical and metaphysical theories in the
traditions of the magi. But in spite of all these accommodations,
adaptations and interpretations, Mithraism always remained in substance a
Mazdaism blended with Chaldeanism, that is to say, essentially a barbarian
religion. It certainly was far less Hellenized than the Alexandrian cult of
Isis and Serapis, or even that of the Great Mother of Pessinus. For that
reason it always seemed unacceptable to the Greek world, from which it
continued to be almost completely excluded. Even language furnishes a
curious proof of that fact. Greek contains a number of theophorous ([Greek:
theophoros], god-bearing) names formed from those of Egyptian or Phrygian
gods, like Serapion, Metrodoros, Metrophilos--Isidore is in use at the
present day--but all known derivations of Mithra are of barbarian
formation. The Greeks never admitted the god of their hereditary enemies,
and the great centers of Hellenic {149} civilization escaped his influence
and he theirs.[31] Mithraism passed directly from Asia into the Latin
world.
There it spread with lightning rapidity from the time it was first
introduced. When the progressive march of the Romans toward the Euphrates
enabled them to investigate the sacred trust transmitted by Persia to the
magi of Asia Minor, and when they became acquainted with the Mazdean
beliefs which had matured in the seclusion of the Anatolian mountains, they
adopted them with enthusiasm. The Persian cult was spread by the soldiers
along the entire length of the frontiers towards the end of the first
century and left numerous traces around the camps of the Danube and the
Rhine, near the stations along the wall of Britain, and in the vicinity of
the army posts scattered along the borders of the Sahara or in the valleys
of the Asturias. At the same time the Asiatic merchants introduced it in
the ports of the Mediterranean, along the great waterways and roads, and in
all commercial cities. It also possessed missionaries in the Oriental
slaves who were to be found everywhere, engaging in every pursuit, employed
in the public service as well as in domestic work, in the cultivation of
land as well as in financial and mining enterprises, and above all in the
imperial service, where they filled the offices.
Soon this foreign god gained the favor of high functionaries and of the
sovereign himself. At the end of the second century Commodus was initiated
into the mysteries, a conversion that had a tremendous effect. A hundred
years later Mithra's power was such that at one time he seemed about to
eclipse both Oriental and Occidental rivals and to dominate the {150}
entire Roman world. In the year 307 Diocletian, Galerius and Licinius met
in a solemn interview at Carnuntum on the Danube and dedicated a sanctuary
there to Mithra, "the protector of their empire" (_fautori imperii
sui_).[32]
In previous works on the mysteries of Mithra we have endeavored to assign
causes for the enthusiasm that attracted humble plebeians and great men of
the world to the altars of this barbarian god. We shall not repeat here
what any one who has the curiosity may read either in a large or a small
book according to his preferences,[33] but we must consider the problem
from a different point of view. Of all Oriental religions the Persian cult
was the last to reach the Romans. We shall inquire what new principle it
contained; to what inherent qualities it owed its superiority; and through
what characteristics it remained distinct in the conflux of creeds of all
kinds that were struggling for supremacy in the world at that time.
The originality and value of the Persian religion lay not in its doctrines
regarding the nature of the celestial gods. Without doubt Parseeism is of
all pagan religions the one that comes closest to monotheism, for it
elevates Ahura Mazda high above all other celestial spirits. But the
doctrines of Mithraism are not those of Zoroaster. What it received from
Persia was chiefly its mythology and ritual; its theology, which was
thoroughly saturated with Chaldean erudition, probably did not differ
noticeably from the Syrian. At the head of the divine hierarchy it placed
as first cause an abstraction, deified Time, the Zervan Akarana of the
Avesta. This divinity regulated the revolutions of the stars and in
consequence was the absolute master of {151} all things. Ahura Mazda, whose
throne was in the heavens, had become the equivalent of _Ba'al Samin_, and
even before the magi the Semites had introduced into the Occident the
worship of the sun, the source of all energy and light. Babylonian
astrology and astrolatry inspired the theories of the mithreums as well as
of the Semitic temples, a fact that explains the intimate connection of the
two cults. This half religious, half scientific system which was not
peculiarly Persian nor original to Mithraism was not the reason for the
adoption of that worship by the Roman world.
Neither did the Persian mysteries win the masses by their liturgy.
Undoubtedly their secret ceremonies performed in mountain caves, or at any
rate in the darkness of the underground crypts, were calculated to inspire
awe. Participation in the liturgical meals gave rise to moral comfort and
stimulation. By submitting to a sort of baptism the votaries hoped to
expiate their sins and regain an untroubled conscience. But the sacred
feasts and purifying ablutions connected with the same spiritual hopes are
found in other Oriental cults, and the magnificent suggestive ritual of the
Egyptian clergy certainly was more impressive than that of the magi. The
mythic drama performed in the grottoes of the Persian god and culminating
in the immolation of a steer who was considered as the creator and
rejuvenator of the earth, must have seemed less important and affecting
than the suffering and joy of Isis seeking and reviving the mutilated body
of her husband, or than the moaning and jubilation of Cybele mourning over
and reviving her lover Attis.
But Persia introduced dualism as a fundamental principle in religion. It
was this that distinguished {152} Mithraism from other sects and inspired
its dogmatic theology and ethics, giving them a rigor and firmness unknown
to Roman paganism. It considered the universe from an entirely new point of
view and at the same time provided a new goal in life.
Of course, if we understand by dualism the antithesis of mind and matter,
of reason and intuition, it appeared at a considerably earlier period in
Greek philosophy,[34] where it was one of the leading ideas of
neo-Pythagoreanism and of Philo's system. But the distinguishing feature of
the doctrine of the magi is the fact that it deified the evil principle,
set it up as a rival to the supreme deity, and taught that both had to be
worshiped. This system offered an apparently simple solution to the problem
of evil, the stumbling block of theologies, and it attracted the cultured
minds as well as the masses, to whom it afforded an explanation of their
sufferings. Just as the mysteries of Mithra began to spread Plutarch wrote
of them favorably and was inclined himself to adopt them.[35] From that
time dates the appearance in literature of the anti-gods ([Greek:
antitheoi]),[36] under the command of the powers of darkness[37] and
arrayed against the celestial spirits, messengers or "angels"[38] of
divinity. They were Ahriman's _devas_ struggling with the Yazatas of
Ormuzd.
A curious passage in Porphyry[39] shows that the earliest neo-Platonists
had already admitted Persian demonology into their system. Below the
incorporeal and indivisible supreme being, below the stars and the planets,
there were countless spirits.[40] Some of them, the gods of cities and
nations, received special names: {153} the others comprised a nameless
multitude. They were divided into two groups. The first were the benevolent
spirits that gave fecundity to plants and animals, serenity to nature, and
knowledge to men. They acted as intermediaries between gods and men,
bearing up to heaven the homage and prayers of the faithful, and down from
heaven portents and warnings. The others were wicked spirits inhabiting
regions close to the earth and there was no evil that they did not exert
every effort to cause.[41] At the same time both violent and cunning,
impetuous and crafty, they were the authors of all the calamities that
befell the world, such as pestilence, famine, tempests and earthquakes.
They kindled evil passions and illicit desires in the hearts of men and
provoked war and sedition. They were clever deceivers rejoicing in lies and
impostures. They encouraged the phantasmagoria and mystification of the
sorcerers[42] and gloated over the bloody sacrifices which magicians
offered to them all, but especially to their chief.
Doctrines very similar to these were certainly taught in the mysteries of
Mithra; homage was paid to Ahriman (Arimanius) lord of the somber
underworld, and master of the infernal spirits.[43] This cult has continued
in the Orient to the present day among the Yezidis, or devil worshipers.
In his treatise against the magi, Theodore of Mopsuestia[44] speaks of
Ahriman as Satan ([Greek: Satanas]). At first sight there really is a
surprising resemblance between the two. Both are heads of a numerous army
of demons; both are spirits of error and falsehood, princes of darkness,
{154} tempters and corrupters. An almost identical picture of the pair
could be drawn, and in fact they are practically the same figure under
different names. It is generally admitted that Judaism took the notion of
an adversary of God[45] from the Mazdeans along with portions of their
dualism. It was therefore natural that Jewish doctrine, of which
Christianity is heir, should have been closely allied to the mysteries of
Mithra. A considerable part of the more or less orthodox beliefs and
visions that gave the Middle Ages their nightmare of hell and the devil
thus came from Persia by two channels: on the one hand Judeo-Christian
literature, both canonical and apocryphal; and on the other, the remnants
of the Mithra cult and the various sects of Manicheism that continued to
preach the old Persian doctrines on the antagonism between the two world
principles.
But a theoretical adherence of the mind to dogmas that satisfy it, does not
suffice to convert it to a new religion. There must be motives of conduct
and a basis for hope besides grounds for belief. The Persian dualism was
not only a powerful metaphysical conception; it was also the foundation of
a very efficacious system of ethics, and this was the chief agent in the
success of the mysteries of Mithra during the second and third centuries in
the Roman world then animated by unrealized aspirations for more perfect
justice and holiness.
A sentence of the Emperor Julian,[46] unfortunately too brief, tells us
that Mithra subjected his worshipers to "commandments" ([Greek: entolai])
and rewarded faithful observance both in this world and in the next. The
{155} importance attached by the Persians to their peculiar ethics and the
rigor with which they observed its precepts, are perhaps the most striking
features of their national character as manifested in history. They were a
race of conquerors subject to a severe discipline, like the Romans, and
like them they realized the necessity of discipline in the administration
of a vast empire. Certain affinities between the two imperial nations
connected them directly without the mediation of the Greek world. Mazdaism
brought long awaited satisfaction to the old-time Roman desire for a
practical religion that would subject the individual to a rule of conduct
and contribute to the welfare of the state.[47] Mithra infused a new vigor
into the paganism of the Occident by introducing the imperative ethics of
Persia.
Unhappily the text of the Mithraic decalogue has not been preserved and its
principal commandments can be restored only by implication.
Mithra, the ancient spirit of light, became the god of truth and justice in
the religion of Zoroaster and retained that character in the Occident. He
was the Mazdean Apollo, but while Hellenism, with a finer appreciation of
beauty, developed the esthetic qualities in Apollo, the Persians, caring
more for matters of conscience, emphasized the moral character in
Mithra.[48] The Greeks, themselves little scrupulous in that respect, were
struck by the abhorrence in which their Oriental neighbors held a lie. The
Persians conceived of Ahriman as the embodiment of deceit. Mithra was
always the god invoked as the guarantor of faith and protector of the
inviolability of contracts. Absolute fidelity to his oath had to be a
cardinal virtue {156} in the religion of a soldier, whose first act upon
enlistment was to pledge obedience and devotion to the sovereign. This
religion exalted loyalty and fidelity and undoubtedly tried to inspire a
feeling similar to our modern idea of honor.
In addition to respect for authority it preached fraternity. All the
initiates considered themselves as sons of the same father owing to one
another a brother's affection. It is a question whether they extended the
love of neighbor to that universal charity taught by philosophy and
Christianity. Emperor Julian, a devoted mystic, liked to set up such an
ideal, and it is probable that the Mithraists of later paganism rose to
this conception of duty,[49] but they were not its authors. They seemed to
have attached more importance to the virile qualities than to compassion
and gentleness. The fraternal spirit of initiates calling themselves
soldiers was doubtless more akin to the spirit of comradeship in a regiment
that has _esprit de corps_, than to the love of one's neighbor that
inspires works of mercy towards all.
All primitive people imagine nature filled with unclean and wicked spirits
that corrupt and torture those who disturb their repose; but dualism
endowed this universal belief with marvelous power as well as with a
dogmatic basis. Mazdaism is governed throughout by ideas of purity and
impurity. "No religion on earth has ever been so completely dominated by an
ideal of purification."[50] This kind of perfection was the goal of the
aspiration and effort of believers. They were obliged to guard with
infinite precaution against defiling the divine elements, for instance
water or fire, or their own persons, and to wipe out all pollution by {157}
repeated lustrations. But, as in the Syrian cults of the imperial period,
these Mithraic rites did remain simply formal, mechanical and of the flesh,
inspired by the old idea of _tabu_. Mithraic baptism wiped out moral
faults; the purity aimed at had become spiritual.
This perfect purity distinguishes the mysteries of Mithra from those of all
other Oriental gods. Serapis is the brother and husband of Isis, Attis the
lover of Cybele, every Syrian Baal is coupled with a spouse; but Mithra
lives alone. Mithra is chaste, Mithra is holy (_sanctus_),[51] and for the
worship of fecundity he substitutes a new reverence for continence.
However, although resistance to sensuality is laudable and although the
ideal of perfection of this Mazdean sect inclined towards the asceticism to
which the Manichean conception of virtue led, yet good does not consist
exclusively in abnegation and self-control, but also in action. It is not
sufficient for a religion to classify moral values, but in order to be
effective it must furnish motives for putting them into practice. Dualism
was peculiarly favorable for the development of individual effort and human
energy; here its influence was strongest. It taught that the world is the
scene of a perpetual struggle between two powers that share the mastery;
the goal to be reached is the disappearance of evil and the uncontested
dominion, the exclusive reign, of the good. Animals and plants, as well as
man, are drawn up in two rival camps perpetually hostile, and all nature
participates in the eternal combat of the two opposing principles. The
demons created by the infernal spirit emerge constantly from the abyss and
roam about the earth; they penetrate everywhere carrying corruption,
distress, {158} sickness and death. The celestial spirits and the
supporters of piety are compelled constantly to baffle their ever renewed
enterprises. The strife continues in the heart and conscience of man, the
epitome of the universe, between the divine law of duty and the suggestions
of the evil spirits. Life is a merciless war knowing no truce. The task of
the true Mazdean consisted in constantly fighting the evil in order to
bring about the gradual triumph of Ormuzd in the world. The believer was
the assistant of the gods in their work of purification and improvement.
The worshipers of Mithra did not lose themselves in a contemplative
mysticism like other sects. Their morality particularly encouraged action,
and during a period of laxness, anarchy and confusion, they found
stimulation, comfort and support in its precepts. Resistance to the
promptings of degrading instincts assumed the glamor and prestige of
warlike exploits in their eyes and instilled an active principle of
progress into their character. By supplying a new conception of the world,
dualism also gave a new meaning to life. This same dualism determined the
eschatological beliefs of the Mithraists. The antagonism between heaven and
hell was extended into the life hereafter.[52] Mithra, the "invincible" god
who assisted the faithful in their struggle against the malignity of the
demons, was not only their strong companion in their human trials, but as
an antagonist of the infernal powers he insured the welfare of his
followers in the future life as well as on earth. When the genius of
corruption seizes the corpse after death, the spirits of darkness and the
celestial messengers struggle for the possession of the soul that has left
its corporeal prison. It stands {159} trial before Mithra, and if its
merits outweigh its shortcomings in the divine balance it is defended from
Ahriman's agents that seek to drag it into the infernal abyss. Finally it
is led into the ethereal regions where Jupiter-Ormuzd reigns in eternal
light. The believers in Mithra did not agree with the votaries of Serapis
who held that the souls of the just reside in the depths of the earth.[53]
To them that somber kingdom was the domain of wrong-doers. The souls of the
just live in the boundless light that extends above the stars, and by
divesting themselves of all sensuality and all lust in passing through the
planetary spheres[54] they become as pure as the gods whose company they
enter.
However, when the world came to an end the body also was to share in that
happiness because it was believed as in Egypt that the whole person would
enjoy eternal life. After time had run its course Mithra would raise all
men from the dead, pouring out a marvelous beverage of immortality for the
good, but all evil doers would be annihilated by fire together with Ahriman
himself.
* * * * *
Of all the Oriental cults none was so severe as Mithraism, none attained an
equal moral elevation, none could have had so strong a hold on mind and
heart. In many respects it gave its definite religious formula to the pagan
world and the influence of its ideas remained long after the religion
itself had come to a violent end. Persian dualism introduced certain
principles into Europe that have never ceased to exert an influence. Its
whole history proves the thesis with which we began, the power of
resistance and of {160} influence possessed by Persian culture and
religion. These possessed an originality so independent that after having
resisted in the Orient the power of absorption of Hellenism, and after
having checked the Christian propaganda, they even withstood the
destructive power of Islam. Firdusi (940-1020) glories in the ancient
national traditions and the mythical heroes of Mazdaism, and while the
idolatry of Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor has long since died out or
degenerated, there are votaries of Zoroaster at the present day who piously
perform the sacred ceremonies of the Avesta and practise genuine fire
worship.
Another witness to the vitality of Mithraic Mazdaism is the fact that it
escaped becoming a kind of state religion of the Roman empire during the
third century. An oft-quoted sentence of Renan's says:[55] "If Christianity
had been checked in its growth by some deadly disease, the world would have
become Mithraic." In hazarding that statement he undoubtedly conjured up a
picture of what would have been the condition of this poor world in that
case. He must have imagined, one of his followers would have us
believe,[56] that the morals of the human race would have been but little
changed, a little more virile perhaps, a little less charitable, but only a
shade different. The erudite theology taught by the mysteries would
obviously have shown a laudable respect for science, but as its dogmas were
based upon a false physics it would apparently have insured the persistence
of an infinity of errors. Astronomy would not be lacking, but astrology
would have been unassailable, while the heavens would still be revolving
around the earth to accord with its doctrines. The greatest {161} danger,
it appears to me, would have been that the Cæsars would have established a
theocratic absolutism supported by the Oriental ideas of the divinity of
kings. The union of throne and altar would have been inseparable, and
Europe would never have known the invigorating struggle between church and
state. But on the other hand the discipline of Mithraism, so productive of
individual energy, and the democratic organization of its societies in
which senators and slaves rubbed elbows, contain a germ of liberty.
We might dwell at some length on these contrasting possibilities, but it is
hard to find a mental pastime less profitable than the attempt to remake
history and to conjecture on what might have been had events proved
otherwise. If the torrent of actions and reactions that carries us along
were turned out of its course what imagination could describe the unknown
regions through which it would flow?
* * * * *
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