THE EEV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL^ ON MITHRAISM. 253 



originally belonging to the worship of Cybele, in which a bull 

 and a ram respectively were slain and their blood allowed to 

 stream down upon a priest or other devotee seated in a pit 

 beneath the place of slaughter. These played an important 

 part in European Mithraism. 



All students of nature-worship are aware how much stress is- 

 laid in them on the procreative power of the sun.* So it wa& 

 in Mithraism too, at least in Europe. Porphyry speaks of 

 Mithra as the " Demiourgosf Bull," and as " Lord of Generation 

 Herodotus, the earliest extant European writer to mention 

 Mithra, was so much impressed by the immorality which, even 

 at that early date, attended his v/orship, that he fell into the 

 mistake of stating that the Persians under this name spoke of 



* Hence in Sun-worship the phallic emblem is so very common. So in 

 a Mithraeum found at Spoleto, near an altar inscribed Soli invicto Mitrce 

 sacrum, " stood two large stones, one triangular and the other conical and 

 perforated" (Pullan, in article on "Mithraism" in vol. xxx of 9th ed. of 

 Encyclop. Brit.) : see picture in Cumont, Textes et Monuments, vol. ii, 

 p. 255. This is explained hy similar objects found in India (the linga 

 and yoni), and especially among the Phoenicians and in the Zimbabwe 

 ruins. Cf. the " towers " pictured in Bent's Ruined Cities of Mashonaland^ 

 p. 149, and the "cone" (p. 150) depicted on a coin of By bios. See also 

 pp. 187-189, 203, 204, of the same book, and cf. (Lucian) De Syria Dea, 

 § 16 : (paWol Se earaai iv roiffi TrpoTrvXaioKri Svo /capra jueyaXoi. The 

 rose has an obscene signiticance at Zimbabwe : ita etiam Arabice penis 



^>^y^\ pater (i.e., qui possidet) rosce dicitur. In Cumont's book, vol. ii> 



p. 191, fig. 17, there is a sculpture thus described' " Mithra- Attis coifFe 

 d'une tiare elevee, vetu d'une tunique a manches attachee sur la poitrine 

 par une bouche ronde et d'un large pantalon, qui laisse V abdomen et les 

 parties ge'nitales d d^coiivert, maintient du genou un taureau abattu," etc. 

 On this subject Julian the Apostate thus writes, speaking of the Sungod 

 (the identity of whom with Mithra he seems to recognise in 155 B) : 

 EiVc/) \pi] TTeldeaOat rot9 rroCpoi^, aTrav-ruov avOpvoTruov eivcn jovtov koivov 

 Trarcfja. Xer^/erat fyap opOw^ avOpivwo's avOpOiiroi^ '^{evvav Kai 7j\io9 ' Yrir^as- 

 [^6^ ovK a(p^ eavTov jaorou aWci tccu TTapa riou uXXtDP 6e(vv aTtelpeiv ec9 

 ryrjv (131 C). He speaks of the sun as TeXe/oVj/To? kui crvvox^'^ 

 ^oi'cjuov ^wfj^ Koi Tt]^ euo€iSov9 ovcrcx^ ra /neaa ^-^oov tv eavriv (142 A.). 

 He seems to be the real author of the erroneous fancy so often repeated 

 nowadays, that moral purity was taught by these Nature religions, for he 

 asks : t/v fxfiv o ''Atti9 lyrot FaWov, t/? tj tCov Oedw /nrjrrjpf ical o rrj^ 

 a'yveia'? TcivT^tri jpoTro^ ovroio^ ; (Orat., V, initio). Julian also speaks of 

 Helios' connection with Aphrodite, and seeks to explain it (150 B., C). 

 t Be Antro Nympharum, xxiv {of. xviii) : kcu 6 Tavpo-i drj/iaovp^^o^ 



