Well, I'm finally getting back to this subject. And seeing you are a lumper and I'm a splitter. From reading some of your posts, it seems like you tend to lump together as Mithraism things that I'd split as separate religions.
As I understand it, the original Persian mythology had a pantheon in which Mithra was a very prominent god. Later Zororastrianism, which comes down to today as Parseeism, reduced his status to the highest archangel or yazata, though he is still there. Later a religion, Mithraism, arose which entered the Roman empire about 100AD and this faith had Mithra as the chief god and had many astrological elements.
I would see all these as very different religions even though all of them have someone called Mithra in them. Just as Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim to worship the god of Abraham and accept many of the same prophets but are still very different religions.
Zorastrianism I agree had a profound influence on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The 100-400 AD religion that is the only one I'd call Mithraism had IMO some influences on
Christianity because they were competitors. I think most of these influences came in the Roman Catholic side of the faith for some reason and less on the Eastern side.
While Mithraism's influence on Christianity doesn't impress much, Zoroastrianism's does on all the three monotheistic faiths. Whenever I start reading things on this subject, I find a lot to wonder about. |
