ABSTRACT
T"\ h e cult o f Mithras is o f Persian origin, and not a few o f its most ancient tenets and customs are preserved in the Zoroastrian reli-gion o f the Parsees, in the collection o f holy lore known as the Zend-A vesta. These make clear the nature o f Mithras as a god o f light
and truth, whose worshippers were expected to observe strict Standards o f veracity and honesty in their conduct and were inspired by the god with courage, perseverance and endurance. But ancient classical literature, sparse and broken though the allusions are, combines with the evidence o f inscriptions and sculptures to give a much more colourful picture, o f a god whose origin and deeds were told in terms derived from the pastoral communities o f the Median highlands o f Persia, where the cult originated. As god o f light, Mithras had received instructions for conferring benefits upon mankind from the Sun-God, against whom were leagued in eternal conflict the powers o f evil and darkness. The bearer o f the Sun-god’s messages was the raven, and it was this bird-messenger who instructed Mithras to steal, and to carry off to a cave for slaughter, the primeval bull, representing in the minds o f a
pastoral community the strongest and most potent source o f life and strength that they knew. This great bull-killing, enacted by Mithras once and for all, was in their belief the act o f creation, and from the
blood o f the dying animal sprang the kindly fruits o f the earth, while his procreative fluid, carried away and preserved in the Moon, was the source o f animal life.
