The issue of the origin of Mithraism and the routes of its spreading in the Roman Empire

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Abstract:

The issue of the origin of Mithraism and the routes of its spreading in the Roman Empire has not become obsolete in the new century. Despite of the numerous scholarly publications and research theses dealing with different aspects of the topic, there are still a lot of debatable and unexplored issues requiring further research on Mithraism. Indubitably the issue of the spreading and genesis of the Mithraic mysteries in the Western Roman provinces is among the most discussed. What route did the cult spread along; is the Iranian cult of Mithras genetically related to the Roman one and if yes, what is the relation? In this article we will try to give answers to some of the above questions by discussing briefly the two main hypotheses of the origins of the Roman Mithraism and by presenting our opinion on the issue. At the same time we will offer some new evidences in support of the theory of „the genetic relation” between the Roman Mithraism and the cult of Mithras in Iran. To this end, we will present successively the main arguments of the critics of Cumont and analyse those.

Keywords:

Mithras, despite, mysteries.

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