Comments on: Mithraism

Mithraism

Jimbob — Mon, 05 May 2003 18:47:00 -0800

The final and most refined form of pre-Christian paganism - Mithraism, an ancient religion found throughout Europe and Western Asia before the time of Christ. It is suggested that this religion provided the source of many practices and beliefs recognized in contempory Christianity; baptism, the concept of a holy trinity, the last supper, and the date of Christmas to name a few.

By: zerolucid

zerolucid — Mon, 05 May 2003 21:52:21 -0800

Wow... that's really awesome. I have a much more well-rounded idea of what the pre-Christian world was like, particularly what it might feel like to live in a world immersed in gods.

By: zerolucid

zerolucid — Mon, 05 May 2003 21:53:21 -0800

...now. I mean, after having read the long essay. (Wasn't sure if I made that clear.)

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Mon, 05 May 2003 22:06:48 -0800

so christianity is like the hip hop of religion?

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Mon, 05 May 2003 22:35:39 -0800

Sampling and remixing? Maybe so. I used to think of Christianity as the Hair Metal of religions; maybe that's better suited to Judaism.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Mon, 05 May 2003 22:41:29 -0800

so were the 12 apostles like The Wu-Tang Clan of christianity? which one was the ODB? GZA? RZA?

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Mon, 05 May 2003 22:45:12 -0800

12 Apostles? D-12. Now what does that make Eminem? 'nuff said.

By: nasim

nasim — Tue, 06 May 2003 05:12:54 -0800

I, for one, welcome our Mithrafilter overlords.

By: dreamling

dreamling — Tue, 06 May 2003 05:14:46 -0800

The 'last supper' happened during Passover, and seems likely to be a Passover Seder meal. Celebrating the passing over of the houses of the jews during the last plague (death of firstborn)in egypt. Certainly many religions have symbolic food ceremonies.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Tue, 06 May 2003 05:57:08 -0800

Just be sure you clean up after that taurobolium. What a mess.

By: unreason

unreason — Tue, 06 May 2003 06:04:41 -0800

The thing about Christmas is pretty well known. A pagan holiday was deliberately turned into a Christian one in order to ease the transition to Christianity. People could keep the fun holiday while ditching the old gods. Kind of like people today who aren't Christian but celebrate Christmas.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Tue, 06 May 2003 08:49:14 -0800

More on Zoroastrians here, here, here (particularly the Mithra/Christ connection), and here.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Tue, 06 May 2003 08:56:07 -0800

Jimbob, your analogy was off the chain. expect props in the mail soon!

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 06 May 2003 09:52:33 -0800

Thanks, Jimbob. I got all the stuff on Zoroaster and pals in college and knew some of the more general pagan influences, but for some reason they glossed over these specific ties to Mithraism. This is fascinating stuff. It's also interesting to note that Rudolf Steiner, the kooky founder of Waldorf Education, which some think of as all flowers-and-birds saccharin-sweet, had a lot to say (which is still kooky in my book) on Ahriman as opposed to Lucifer.