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A Mystery Solved?
The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World by
David Ulansey
Review by: J. Gwyn Griffiths
The Classical Review,
New Series, Vol. 41, No. 1 (1991), pp. 122-124
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Cambridge University Press
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122
THE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
analysis of Virgil's sources for the Italian catalogue, though dismissed as 'very
reductive' by Wiseman (JRS 1989, 130, offering no explanation or alternative) is at
least based on the evidence and on twenty years' hard tinkering with the problem.
One learns to distinguish between sources and inventions and my own perceptions of
the poet's working methods certainly do not concur with K.-Z.'s (cf. now A. La
Penna, Maia 40 [1988], 221-50 for a full analysis of Camilla's narrative antecedents).
K.-Z.'s reading is sketchy: on invulnerability, cf. O. Berthold's R VV study of 1911 (at
p. 266); Brill's 1972 Heidelberg diss. on Camilla is not unhelpful; B. Rehm, Phil.
Suppl. 24.2 (1932), 5ff. shows just how uninterested Virgil was in the Celtic traditions
of Mantua; a fortiori, therefore it was ill-advised to hunt Gallic etymologies
elsewhere. Opis and Dercennus prompt K.-Z. to proclaim 'sight' (and seeing-deities,
like Epoptides, supra) as the key to the Camilla episodes: in the action, 'seeing' is
primarily of Homeric origin. Dercennus is a mystery. Why is he Laurentine? (BICS
Suppl. 52,4). On his tomb, see R. Ross Holloway, AJA 1966, 173: prehistoric villages
in Hom. become royal burial mounds which Virgil transposes to Latium. Opis is
Callimachean, like Casmila; both names attracted the Roman antiquarian writers. A
double charm for a poet to whom the Muses once handed celestial scissors-and-paste.
Io's presence on Turnus' shield similarly (pace 288) has a perfectly good literary
explanation (Small, TAPA 1959, 243ff., Buchheit, Sendung Roms, 115). Late-antique
admiration for Virgilian theology (267) shows he still had readers who could divine
something of how much he had himself read and digested. That does not mean that
he interpreted his sources in the manner of a K.-Z. Now that we have read D. Fowler,
in Homo Viator 295-6, the pro pilo membrum, cunnuspro vulnere interpretation of
268-9 may seem less unusual. I am still not ready to see it as Virgilian. Of course
Virgil's Italian heroines (Camilla's companions) yield remarkable implications if
studied apart from the poet's methods and sources for proper names (cf. Saunders,
TAPA 1940, 543-4). And so on. Camilla is a pure literary construct; any analogies
she may have had with Valeria Luperca are purely fortuitous. Complete disagreement
should not obscure my respect for K.-Z.'s acuity, ingenuity, eloquence and elegance.
Rome
NICHOLAS
HORSFALL
A MYSTERY
SOLVED?
DAVID ULANSEY: The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries:. Cosmology
and Salvation in the Ancient World. Pp. xii+154; 47 figs. Oxford
University Press, 1989.
Eulogists quoted on the dust-jacket say that this book ' throws a completely new light
on the origin of the Mithras religion' (B. L. van der Waerden) and that 'Dr Ulansey
has put the development of western Mithraism in an utterly new perspective within
the history of Hellenistic Mediterranean civilization' (Martin Schwartz). U. himself
is more modest, for in his opening chapters he shows that the astronomical
significance of the tauroctony has previously been posited by K. B. Stark, Roger
Beck, Stanley Insler, and Michael Speidel. In reviving this theory, however, U.
contributes important new ideas and presents them in clear and well punctuated
stages, avoiding the abstruse technicalities which might have deterred non-
astronomers like the present reviewer. A Bibliography is included (pp. 141-6) and it
is very puzzling to note the omission of R. Merkelbach, Mithras (Hain, 1984),
0009-840X/91 $3.00
? Oxford University Press 1991
THE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
123
as
carriesthe date 'October1988'. Perhapsthe explanation
lies
especially the Preface
in the sentence'This book grewout of my dissertation.' discussionof aspectsof
A
of
Merkelbach's
volume,particularly the astronomical
impressive
aspect,wouldhave
improvedthis study. Accordingto M. the Mithrasmysteriesconstituteda star-
religion in which the seven planets of the geocentric system were in a close
to
relationship the seveninitiationgradesof the mysteries.
Whereaspreviouswriters(includingK. B. Starkin 1869)had pointedto the fact
that the figuresshownwith Mithrasin his act of slayingthe bull- the bull, scorpion,
U.
dog, snake,raven,lion, cup - haveeacha parallel
amongtheconstellations, shows
that the zodiac,sun, moon, and planetsalso occurin the tauroctony in subsidiary
or
He thenraiseswhatto himis 'an extremely
obviousquestion':'shouldn't
depictions.
Mithrashimselfalso represent constellation whichhe is similarin appearance?'
a
to
The questionis not as self-evidentas U. finds it. A god is here associatedwith a
numberof astralphenomena, he himselfmightwell differin character have a
but
or
role whichincludessway over the stars.If Mithrashas a dominantrole in
sovereign
relationto the stars,one mightexpectit to be thatof the sun, sincehe is closelylinked
to the sun or is himselfthe sol invictus herep. 107).It was MichaelSpeidelin his
(see
Mithras-Orion
the
in
(1980)who pioneered searchfor a constellation thiscontext.He
offeredsalutary
warnings
againsta merelyrandomchoice,noting'the nearlylimitless
of
possibilities ancientand modernastrology'andcallingfor' a rigorous,
meaningful
in the relationof the constellations.
finds the unifying
organizing
principle'
Speidel
in the fact that these constellationslie on the celestial equator and he
principle
the
constellation
Orion.U.
accordingly
proposesthat Mithrasrepresents equatorial
that
rejectsthis choice and insteadhe proposesthe constellation
Perseus,remarking
he is figuredabove Taurusand shown as 'a young hero, carryinga dagger,and
wearinga Phrygiancap' (p. 26) in the mannerof Mithrashimself.The Romans
regardedMithras as being of Persian origin, and Perseus was given a similar
in
connection,
mainlythroughhis son Perses;further, the artistictradition
concerning
Perseusas killerof the Medusa,Perseusturnsaway from his victimjust as Mithras
does fromthe bull.U.'s nextstepis to adducethe flourishing of Perseus Tarsus
cult
at
in Cilicia and to link this with Plutarch'saccount of how Mithraismbegan with
piratesof Ciliciawhom Pompeyconfrontedin 67 B.C.Developinghis astronomical
theory,U. agreeswith Speidelin positingthe key role of the celestialequator('the
of
projection the earth'sequatoronto the celestialsphere',p. 47; the chartshereare
lucidand helpful,unlikethe mapon p. 5 on locationsof Mithraic
where
monuments,
most of the namesareillegible);and the 'precession the equinoxes'is shownto be
of
importantsince it 'resultsin a slow movementof the equinoctialpoints backward
through the zodiac.' In the tauroctony,it is argued,Taurus and Scorpiusoccur
instead of the expectedAries and Libra, for 'in Graeco-Romantimes the spring
of
equinoxwas in the constellation Aries,and the autumnequinoxwas in Libra.'The
of the equinoxes saidto offera solution:in a previousera,between
is
4000
precession
and 2000B.C.,the equinoxeswerein Taurusand Scorpius,as in the tauroctony.
U. realizesthe starkdifficulty this basicpoint,assuming he does that the early
of
as
Mithraistsknew of the position of the celestialequatoras it was severalthousand
yearsearlier.In spiteof the ably defensiveexpositionsthat follow I find this central
of
assumptiontoo much to swallow.U. shows that the Stoic philosophers Tarsus
were intenselyinterestedin astronomyand that Posidoniusmust have influenced
themduringthe firsthalf of the firstcentury
B.C.
- the periodwhenMithraism
arose
in Ciliciaaccording Plutarch.Moreappositeto U.'s theoryis the discoveryof the
to
of
whichhe assignsto around128
B.C.
The
precession the equinoxesby Hipparchus,
124
THE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
interpretation of the discovery might have implied knowledge of 'a previously
unknown movement of the entire cosmic structure' (p. 80); the Stoics, it is suggested,
would have been fervently excited by such speculations, and Posidonius was the likely
intermediary.
Sociology is largely missing from this study. An intellectual elite in Tarsus could
perhaps have appreciated the subtleties conveyed and U. makes the valid point that
he is dealing only with the origins of the cult; its later popular appeal relates to the
widespread belief in astrology. A brave attempt is made to justify the part played by
the pirates of Cilicia: 'clearly, these were no ordinary pirates.' They numbered at least
twenty thousand (' a small nation') and were in contact with a wealthy intelligentsia;
further, they were as sailors vitally concerned with the stars.
A feature of the work is its resolute refusal to recognize any element of authentic
Iranian tradition in Western Mithraism. The bull-offering described in the Bundahishn
is regarded as irrelevant (p. 9); Merkelbach, Mithras, 10-12, more wisely argues that
it probably belonged to the cult of Mithra; and John Hinnells, after initial scepticism,
urged that 'there remains a core of Iranian ideology at the heart of Mithraism' (U.,
p. 11). On the Iranian source of the Mithraic fire-ordeals see my remarks in La
Soteriologia dei culti orientali nell'impero romano, ed. Bianchi and Vermaseren
(Leiden, 1982), 209-13. On p. 111 U. admits that 'the Iranian Mithra had become
identified with the sun before the origins of Western Mithraism', but seeks, without
cogency, to explain sol invictus as a late 'contamination' of the Western cult from
Iranian sources. In several ways, then, the author arouses admiration of his ingenuity,
but not the conviction that he is right.
University of Wales, Swansea
J. G W Y N G R I F F I T H S
SABAZIOS
E. N. LANE:CorpusCultusIovis Sabazii (CCIS), III: Conclusions.
aux
dansl'Empire
Romain,
(EtudesPreliminaires ReligionsOrientales
100.3.) Pp. ix+68; 2 plates. Leiden, New York, Copenhagenand
Cologne: Brill, 1989.Paper,fl. 60.
This is Part 3 of Volume 100 of the Etudes Preliminaires series. Part 1 (1983), written
by Vermaseren himself on the basis of earlier work by E. Westra, catalogued the
sculptures of hands that are such a remarkable peculiarity of the Sabazios cult. Part
2 (1985), by Lane (who had already composed the Corpus MonumentorumReligionis
Dei Menis for the series), was an inventory of 'The Other Monuments and Literary
Evidence'. Part 3, here reviewed, is again by Lane and, together with a few addenda
and corrigenda to the previous parts, surveys the evidence collected in them and offers
(some) conclusions. At 68 pages, excluding plates, this is the longest of the 3 parts. Is
this what one may expect of a god without a single excavated temple to his name (p.
48)?
This third Part is at once more controversial and more slight than may at first
appear. There is no review of previous scholarship on Sabazios and no real
bibliography. For this, at least, (with other summary discussions of Sabazios) the
reader will have to turn elsewhere.1Partly this is a product of L.'s rather casual style,
most notably revealed in the inappropriate 'discussion' of ancient and modern
1 S. E. Johnson, 'The Present State of Sabazios Research', ANRWII 17.3 (1984), pp.
1583-1613,thoughhe givesonly a limitedidea of how we got to our 'presentstate'. Useful,if
0009-840X/91 $3.00 ? OxfordUniversityPress 1991

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