256 THE KEV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL^ D.D., ON MITBRAISM. 



called Hush,^ which means " mind/' "intelligence," by drinking 

 which the dead man is rendered immortal when recalled to life by 

 Saoshyaiis. De Harlez holds that this book was composed in 

 the era of the Sasanides (a.d. 218-640) and received its final 

 form after the Muhammadan conquest of Persia, a.d. 640.f 

 Yet it doubtless contains many aiicientj legends, [t is very 

 doubtful, however, whether any part of this Bull-legend was 

 accepted by the Western Mithraists. There is some reason to 

 think that the Phrygians were — at least in large measure — 

 Aryans : hence we may perhaps connect the slaying of the bull 

 by Mithra (as represented in the Mithraea) with the Vedic 

 sacrifice of cattle, with the Taurobolion, and possibly with the 

 idea that the Earth might be spoken of as a bull, or as a cow. 

 On the other hand the fact that the clouds are often called cattle 

 in the Eig-A^eda: where Indra is their owner, and that the epithet 

 /SovkXotto^ or " stealer of oxen " is given to Mithra by Porphyry,§ 

 renders it possible that the striking a dagger into the bull refers 

 rather to the smiting of a rain-cloud in order to pour down the 

 life-giving stream to fertilise the|l earth. The sacrificial 

 significance of the act is rendered very doubtful by the fact that 

 nowhere do we find any legend which represents Mithra as 

 offering sacrifice to Ahura Mazda (Ormazd), though we have 

 found a reference to something similar on Ahura Mazda's part 

 towards Mithra.lT In Western Mithraism Ormazd seems to 

 have been almost or altogether eclipsed by Mithra, and is 

 hardly ever mentioned. 



It is easy to reconstruct the theology of India and Persia in 

 relation to Mithra: but we have hardly any data to go upon if 

 we endeavour to state the Mithraic theology of the West. We 



Avestic ushl {cf. also usia, health, healthy) : Pahlavi hitsh, Mod. 

 Pers. hits/i. 



t De Harley : Ma7iuel de la Jangue pehlvie, p. 85. 



X Cf. BUnd", §§ .3-5 witli Plutarch, Be hide et Osiride, cap. 47. 



§ Cf. Yaslit X, 86. Compare the Greek story of Cacus and the cattle 

 rescued by Herakles. In Armenian and Persian the names given to the 

 Milky Wa.}" bear evidence to some tale about stealing cattle, or at least 

 straw for them. But in Armenian the thief was not Mithra but Vahagn 

 (=Avestic Verethraghna.) In the Taiitiriya Brdhmana the Galaxy is 

 called " the Path of Aryaman," an associate of Mithra in the Pig-Veda. 

 Strangely enough, in Coptic and among Arabs, Syrians, Chaldeans, and 

 Ethiopians, it was known as " the strawy way'' (Kircher in Peyron's Lev. 

 Copt., p. 258). 



II Similarly in Mithraic carvings Mithra is often represented as shoot- 

 ing an arrow into a rock {i.e., a cloud) and causing water to flow from it. 

 IF Yasht X, 123, vide p. 247, note 



