The Sun and the Moon on the Plaques of Mithras

Abstract

The representations of Mithras are the object of a true fascination by the historians and the researchers. The challenge is serious, since there are almost no documents on this religion, except indirect testimonies. However, it was more important than Christianity for 4 centuries. Its installation in Rome seems to be contemporary with Christianity and linked to the person of Flavius Josephus. Many academic theories have tried to make Mithraism an anti-Roman oriental religion, but this hypothesis seems paradoxical, since it was practised by the army of Rome and its high officials. Others see in the stars a universal religion with a cosmic salvation, a novelty for the time, but one wonders why it was elitist and masculine. Others see, in the Sun/Moon opposition, the challenge between the East and the West of the Empire, but does this opposition of two luminaries date from the century of Augustus? Finally, others have seen in the sacrifice of the bull a Stoic philosophy. But can a philosophy become a religion with Mysteries?