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Mithras stock epithet is Sol Invictus, "invincible sun".However, Mithras is distinct from both deities known as Sol Invictus, and they are separate entities on Mithraic statuary and artwork such as the tauroctony, hunting scenes, and banquet scenes, in which Mithras dines with Sol. [10] Other scenes feature Mithras ascending behind Sol in the latter's chariot, the deities shaking hands and the ...
Sol Invictus (Classical Latin: [ˈsoːɫ ɪnˈwɪktʊs], "Invincible Sun" or "Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the late Roman Empire and a later version of the god Sol. The emperor Aurelian revived his cult in 274 AD and promoted Sol Invictus as the chief god of the empire.
An altar or block from near SS. Pietro e Marcellino on the Esquiline in Rome was inscribed with a bilingual inscription by an Imperial freedman named T. Flavius Hyginus, probably between 80 and 100 CE. It is dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras. [an]
The Latin sol for "Sun" is believed to originate in the Proto-Indo-European language, as a continuation of the heteroclitic *Seh 2 ul- / *Sh 2-en-, and thus cognate to other solar deities in other Indo-European languages: Germanic Sol, Sanskrit Surya, Avestan Hvare-khshaeta, Greek Helios, Lithuanian Saulė. [6] Also compare Latin sol to ...
Greek/Latin "Mithras," the focal deity of the Greco-Roman cult of Mithraism is the nominative form of vocative Mithra. In contrast to the original Avestan meaning of "contract" or "covenant" (and still evident in post-Sassanid Middle Persian texts), the Greco-Roman Mithraists probably thought the name meant "mediator".
Feasting was the primary religious experience of initiated members, along with reenactments of core Mithraic imagery, such as the meal shared between the god Sol Invictus and Mithras, or the bearing of torches by men representing the twins of the rising and setting sun, Cautes and Cautopates. [14] [15]
In Mithraic images, Mithras either represents the sun, or is a close friend of the sun god Helios or Sol Invictus (Latin: the invincible sun) with whom Mithras dines. So attendants Cautes and Cautopates are supposed to represent the stations of sunrise and sunset respectively, or perhaps the spring and autumn equinoxes, or equivalently the ascending (spring) and descending (autumnal) nodes of ...
They included the Eleusinian Mysteries, Mithraism, the Cult of Isis, and the Cult of Sol Invictus. Mystery traditions were popular in ancient Greece and during the height of the Roman Empire , [ 1 ] and parts of Early Christianity used secrecy in the same way.