ABSTRACT
An analysis of the constituent elements of Mithraism, like a cross-section of a geological formation, shows the stratifications of this composite mass in their regular order of deposition. Under the Achaemenides, all the different nations lying between the Pontus Euxinus and Mount Taurus were suffered by the tolerance of the central authority to practise their local cults, customs, and languages. In Armenia, Mazdaism had coalesced with the national beliefs of the country and with a Semitic element imported from Syria. Mithra remained one of the principal divinities of the syncretic theology that issued from this triple influence. In Pontus, Mithra is represented on horseback like Men, the lunar god honored throughout the entire peninsula. In other places, he is pictured in broad, slit trousers, recalling to mind the mutilation of Attis. In Persia itself the Magi constituted an exclusive caste, which appears to have been subdivided into several subordinate classes.
