1 Earliest Rome

12.5 The mysteries ofMithras
Markos Ulpios Artemidoros, high priest of the Pontic League; Hippolochos son of
Pythion; Karpos son of Apollodoros; Kallistratos son of Apollodoros; Ailios Dionvsios
son of Demokrates; Ioulios Bassos governor's orderly; Aurelios Aimilianos; Ailios Firmos;
Dionysios son of Dionysodoros.
I. The inscription is dated by the year in which the governor of the province of Lower
Moesia held the principal civic priesthood of the town.
12.5d Persia and initiation into the cult of Mithras
The cult of Mithras in the Roman empire claimed its origin in Persia. So, in
this passage. Porphyry starts his discussion with the magi of Persian religion
and moves directly on to the cult of Mithras in the Roman empire. His main
point is a philosophical attack on a carnivorous diet; but, in citing the initiates
of Mithras as examples of those who adhere to vegetarianism, he provides
important evidence on Mithraic initiation and symbolism, especially in relation
to the Lion grade.
See further: Vol. 1, 277-8, 303-7; Vermaseren (1963) 129-53*; Beck
(1984) 2090-3; Brashear (1992) with Vol. 1, 000 for a probably Mithraic initiatory
catechism from Lgypt.
Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Foodw. 16
Indeed among the Persians those who have wisdom about the divine and serve it are
called magi (this is the meaning of magus in the local language), and this class is held by
the Persians to be so great and venerable that Darius, son of Hystaspes, actually had this,
among other things, engraved on his tomb, that he had been a teacher of the learning of
the magi} They were divided into three classes, as Euboulos recorded in his multi-volume
history of Mithras: 2
the first and most learned class do not eat or kill any living thing,
adhering to the ancient abstinence from animals; the second class eat some, but do not
kill any domesticated animals; similarly, the third class do not lay hands on any animals.
For they share a primary belief in the transmigration of souls, which they seem also to reflect in the mysteries of Mithras. There, in order to demonstrate
our kinship with animals allegorically, they are accustomed to image us by means of
animals. Thus they call those who are initiated into their rites 'Lions', women 'Hyenas',
and the attendants 'Ravens'. And with respect to the Fathers ; for they
are called 'Eagles' and 'Hawks". 3
The person who is initiated into the grade of Lion
is invested with all sorts of animal forms. The reason
for this is given by Pallas in his work on Mithras; 4
he says that the common opinion is
that these things refer to the circle of the zodiac, but that the real and accurate
explanation is that they state allegorically something about human souls, which they say are incarnated in all sorts of bodies . . .
1. Darius I, king of Persia 522—486 B.C. The surviving inscriptions from the tomb do not
say this.
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