ABSTRACT
Mithra is of course associated with the solar cycles, but he also presides over the changing seasons; in this role he is the master of both the “apocalypse” and the resurrection as represented by the beginning of the expansion of the sun (in winter solstice) to its full capacity (until summer solstice) and the zodiacal shift in the seasonal equinoxes. In other words, he rules over the moments of death (fana) of the old, followed by a [re-]birth (baqa) of the continuing spirit of life. Turning now to what we can reconstruct from Partho-Roman times, this mediating power of Mithra is represented in the striking Tauroctanous scene by the “torchbearers” who ank Mithra in the ritual within the cavernous Mithraeum.6 e torchbearers represent the equinoxes, and the torches are an indicative presence of the solar cycles. Cautes (spring equinox) is shown with torch pointing upwards, depicting “dawn” and “summer solstice”, and Cautopates (autumn equinox) with torch pointing downwards symbolizes “dusk” and “winter solstice”. Implicit within the Su concept of fana, and as hinted at by the seasonal and solar cycles, the idea of death does not represent an absolute end. It illustrates a double function, similar to the proto-Indo-Iranian myth of the sacred bull of life, reected in the Bundahishn, wherein the killing of the bull rejuvenates the cycle of life.7 In the case of the Bundahishn, it is from the life essence of the sacred bull that all cosmic life continues to generate, although in this “saga” the bull is slain by Ahriman (Angra Mainyu = “angry mind”), intending to destroy life. In the account of creation in Bundahishn 4.12, the cosmic (or primal) bull is slain but the seeds of the dying bull are rescued by the moon from which come forth all of creation. e later Pahlavi text Dadistan i-denig explains Ormuz’s (Ahura Mazda) omnipotence in knowing his enemy’s intent, thus the prominent theme presented there is that an act of negativity or destruction is transformed positively into an act of creation.8 In later Mithraism this motif is adapted to a more subtle formulation with Mithra as the apparent “slayer”. Overall, what is made obvious in both mythologies is perhaps the insignicance of evil in the grander scheme and its limited eect on the ultimate course of life. Indeed, at the deepest level of the Su contemplative mode, there is no “evil”.
