1. Origin
Helios was the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia.1 In Homer and Hesiod Helios appears as the sun god who travels over the earth and observes justice and the transgressions of the mortals.2 He was often conceived as a charioteer who brought light upon earth. Every day he rose at dawn from the ocean that lies in the East and drove his chariot, which was pulled by four horses - Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon - through the sky, to descend at night in the West.3 During the night Helios was believed to float back to his Eastern palace in a golden bowl.4 Details of this compelling description of Helios’s role as a Sun god are elaborated in myth, literature, poetry, and art. The identification of the Sun with Apollo was known since the 5th century BC but did not become established until much later.5 In Roman mythology Helios was known as Sol.6
Helios fathered several important mythological characters. With his wife, the Oceanid Perseis, Helios had three legendary children7– Circe, Pasiphae, and Aietes.8 His other two daughters are Phaethusa (“radiant”) and Lampetia (“shining”).9 He also had a son, named Phaethon by Clymene, whom he once allowed to drive his chariot across the sky.10 The inexperienced young man could not control the horses and fell from the skies to his untimely death.11 The god had numerous relationships with women who bore his children. These “children of the Sun” were sometimes referred to as Heliades in mythology and literature. 1.1. Connection to other traditions
According to a certain tradition, Helios originated from Aia, homeland of magic12 and of dangerous sorceresses like Medea.13 Certain parallels exist between the Greek mythology of the Sun and eastern traditions: golden fleeces were prominent in the Purulli festival (Hittite celebration of the new Year), while Jason’s task was to bring the Golden Fleece from Aia, the country of the sun; Aia is the name of the Sun-god’s wife in Mesopotamian and Hittite religion.14 In the Indo-European mythological tradition the sun appears from and disappears into some 'Mysterious Beyond', or has to cross the Underworld at night.15 Gilgamesh travels through a huge tunnel in a perforated mountain and beyond the sea, ‘along the road of the Sun’,16 to a land where immortality may be found. In these regions there is an abundance of animals. Flocks of the sun god are often found in the Hittite realm. Furthermore, they are common in Greek mythology where they seem to always be placed either close to the margins of the world or close to the entrance of another, characteristically non-human world: for instance, flocks of Helios in Greece are found in Taenarum,17where the famous entrance to the Underworld was located, or at Apollonia,18 where the route from the Hyperboreans, Apollo’s people, beyond the cosmic mountain, meets the Greek world. Cattle of the Sun are attested at Gortyn in Crete (Serv.Ecl.6.60), and are introduced into the twelfth book of the Odyssey. The origin of this tradition may also be traced back well beyond the emergence and differentiation of Sumerian or Indo-European or Mediterranean languages and civilisations. 1.2. Literary references to other traditions
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the goddess is roaming the earth in a quest for her daughter, Persephone, who was abducted by Hades, king of the Underworld. Demeter turns to Helios, who sees everything, seeking assistance in finding her missing child.19 Likewise, it is the Sun god who first takes notice of the affair between the Olympians Aphrodite and Ares in the Odyssey.20 In addition, in Od.12.327-396 the tradition regarding the cattle of the Sun is mentioned:21 the hero and his comrades due to unfavorable winds are trapped on the island of Thrinacia where the sacred cattle of the Sun graze under the supervision of his daughters, Phaethusa and Lampetia; the men eventually run out of supplies and consequently fail to abstain from consuming the sacred cattle of the Sun.22 The punishment is harsh and Odysseus loses his ship and his remaining comrades.23 2. Cult and mysteries
The reverence of the sun as a god was imported to Greece from the east. Helios was worshipped around the Peloponnese,24 but his cult was celebrated mainly in Rhodes, where athletic games were organized in his honour on an annual basis.25According to the historical tradition, the first inhabitants of the island were allegedly the Carians, a tribe which originated in Asia Minor. The Carians were followed by the Phoenicians, who made Rhodes an important commercial centre. Cadmus founded the first Phoenician colony on the island and also introduced the first alphabet. The Rhodians who had an exceptional reputation for fairness and justice regarded the Sun as their patron god and his image appeared on virtually all their coinage.26 The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, was a bronze statue of the sun god Helios (30 m. high, work of Chares of Lindos),27 erected around 280 BC to guard the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes; it was destroyed about 55 years later. Legend has it that the statue actually straddled the harbour entrance, but it is more likely that it stood on one side only. The statue collapsed during an earthquake in 224 BC but its enormous fragments continued to lie scattered in the vicinity of the harbour. Nearly a thousand years later, in 656 AD, a Muslim merchant bought the fragments as scrap metal to be re-melted.28 In other places where Helios was worshipped, there were herds dedicated to him, such as on the island of Thrinacia (sometimes identified as Sicily). People sacrificed oxen, rams, goats, and white horses to Helios. Prayers were often addressed to the Sun.29 The cult of Helios was particularly popular in Asia Minor, reflecting the religious syncretism in this area. Often the god was attributed with features borrowed from other Greek deities, such as Apollo and Hermes, with whom, according to the myth, Helios shared identical bucolic qualities. Moreover, the cult of Helios was merged with the cult of other oriental gods, such as Sarapis, but mostly Mithras. More specifically, in Cilicia the cult of Helios was predominant in cities, such as Mopsus, Tarsus, Epiphaneia, Soloi and Soloi-Pompeopolis, Hierapolis Castabala and Seleukeia ad Calycandus. Abundant archaeological evidence regarding the worship of Helios exists in the territory of Lydia, mostly at Tralleis. Traces of the cult of Helios are found also in the cities Aninetos, Thyateira, Tripolis, Philadelphia and Vryoula. In Bithynia there is evidence from Bithynium/Claudiopolis, Nicaea, Prousa, Apameia Myrleia and Prousias at Hypium. In Ionia the cult flourished at Magnesia ad Maeandrum, Ephesus, Erythrae and Smyrna. In Mysia the inhabitants of Pergamon, Miletoupolis, Kyzikos and Lampsakos worshipped the sun god. In Pamphylia Attaleia and Side, in Pisidia Antiocheia and Salagassos and in Galatia Ankara and Pessinus hosted cult images of Helios. In many Phrygian cities, such as Aezani, Colossae, Kotiaion, Laodicea, Kivyra, Akmonia, Apameia, Peltes and Hieropolis, there were temples dedicated to the god. Helios was also worshipped at Amaseia in Pontos, Sinope in Paphlagonia and Telmessus in Lycia. In addition, his cult was particularly popular in Caria, especially in the cities Rhodes, Megisti, Halicarnassus, Cnidus, Aphrodisias, Apollonia, Salvake, Nisyros and Kos. The cult of Helios was also known in Cappadocian Caesarea, Abydus in the Troad and Myrina in Aeolis. 2.1. Connection of Helios to oriental religions
Herodotus was an enthusiastic student of Persian religion; in the first book of his Histories he compared the Greek with the Persian systems of belief.30 An indicative episode is the following: when Xerxes, the Great Persian King was about to cross the Hellespont, he offered a from a golden cup into the sea, and prayed for victory. He then cast the golden cup, together with a golden and a Persian sword (akinakes), into the Hellespont. Xenophon is not certain whether the King offered these things to the sun or to the sea. The Persian army was accompanied by a chariot drawn by eight white horses which no man was allowed to ride because it was sacred to the god whom Herodotus calls Zeus. Frazer thought that the deity may have been either the Sky-god or the Supreme God Ahura Mazda, whom Xerxes as the cuneiform inscriptions show, worshipped under the name of Auramazda. In one of these inscriptions Xerxes declares that “Auramazda is a powerful god; he is the greatest of gods”. This chariot which was sacred to Zeus is also mentioned by Xenophon in the historical romance Cyropedia, which he devoted to the glorification of Cyrus the Elder. Xenophon narrates that it was followed by a chariot of the Sun, also drawn by white horses and adorned with garlands like the chariot of Zeus.31 The statement that the Persians sacrificed horses to the Sun is confirmed by other ancient authors. Another people, possibly Iranian, who sacrificed horses to the Sun were the Massagetae, a people of Turkestan, to the east of the Caspian Sea. They alleged as the ground for the sacrifice that the swiftest of the gods ought to receive the fleetest of mortal animals. Likewise, horses were sacrificed to the Sun by the Lacedaemonians and the Rhodians. A later Greek historian, Agatharchides of Samos, mentions that Xerxes sacrificed oxen on the altar of Sun. In a letter of Darius I, which was engraved in Greek on a stone near Magnesia in Asia Minor, the monarch praises his vassal Gadates for transplanting certain fruits from beyond the Euphrates to Lower Asia. At the same time, the king threatens him with punishment for his impiety to take tribute from the vinedressers, who were sacred to Apollo, and compel these holy men to dig unhallowed ground. Here Apollo is probably equivalent to the Sun, who would accordingly seem to have had vineyards and vinedressers of his own in the time of Darius, just as he had cattle in the time of Homer.32 2.2. Helios and Mithras
Helios played an important part in the religion of Mithras with whom he was identified.33 According to the Mithraic legends the hero-god fought with the sun, conquered him, crowned him with rays and made him his eternal friend and fellow; hence, the sun became in a sense Mithras’ twin, or his father, thus Helios Mithras was one god. Mithraism was enriched with astrological elements after the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great and arrived in Asia Minor, especially Pontus and Cappadocia.34 Here the cult of the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort, Attis, influenced Mithraism significantly. This Phrygian-Chaldean-Indo-Iranian religion, in which the Iranian element was predominant, after Alexander’s conquest came in contact with the Western World, especially Rome.35 3. Iconography
Helios was typically represented as a youth with a halo, standing in a chariot, occasionally with a billowing cloak. A metope from the Hellenistic temple of Athena at Ilium represents him in likewise fashion. He was also depicted on much more recent reliefs, narrating the worship of Mithra, such as in the Mithraeum under St. Prisca in Rome. In early Christian art, Christ was sometimes represented as Helios, such as on a mosaic in Mausoleum M in the necropolis beneath the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. His attributes were the whip and the globe, and his sacred animals were the cock and the eagle. It is believed that Alexander the Great was often depicted in art as Helios. |
1. There exist conflicting accounts of the parentage of Helios. In the Homeric Hymn to Helios (31), we are told that Hyperion married his sister, Euryphaesa, and begot tireless Helios (the Sun), rosy Eos (the Dawn) and fair tressed Selene (the Moon). However, in Hesiod’s Theogony (372), the mother of Eos, Helios and Selene is listed as Theia. She and Hyperion were Titans of the same generation as Kronos, and like Kronos, were the children of Gaia (or Ge) and Ouranos. 2. E.g. Hom. Il. 8.68, 3.277, 19.259; Hes. Th. 372-4; see also Aesch. Choeph. 984-6; Segal, C.P. “Divine Justice in the Odyssey: Poseidon, Cyclops and Helios”, AJP 113 (1992), pp. 3-29; McCarthy, D. J., Treaty and Covenant 2 (Rome 1978), p. 185. For Helios in later treaties, see IG II2 127.38 (356); Inscr.Cret. I.84 no.1.28; West, M.L. The East face of the Helicon (Oxford 1997), p. 20. 3. A neo-Babylonian text describes the accoutrements of the Sun-god’s chariot kept at Sippar, with its gold reins and its other equipment of silver and gold: Gelling, P. – Davidson, H.E., The Chariot of the Sun, (London 1969), pp. 14ff.; Glob, P.V., The Mound People, (London 1974), pp. 99-103; Green, M., The Sun-Gods of Ancient Europe, (London 1991), pp. 64-66, 114f. 4. Mimn. fr. 12; Ath. 496cff. Later Heracles had to force Helios to lend him his golden cup in order to travel to Erytheia, the island of Geryon. Stesich .PMG 185.1; Titanomachia fr. 7; Pisander Ath. 469d, quoted by Burkert, W. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley 1979), p. 83 n. 4. 5. Callim. Hec. fr. 103. For the identification see also Parmenides and Empedocles DK 28 A 20, 31 A 23. Cleanthes the Stoic named the Sun ‘leading principle’ of the world SVF 1.499; Ap.Rhod. 2.669-719; see also Hunter, R., “Apollo and the Argonauts: two notes on Ap. Rhod. 2.669-719”, MH 43 (1986), pp. 50-52. 6. For the identification of the Sun with Apollo see Eratosth. Cat. 24, who claimed that Aeschylus had stated in one of his plays that it was Orpheus who identified Helius with Apollo and made him the centre of his cult when he refused to honour Dionysus. Also see Makr. Sat. 1.18.22 = fr. 238: “item Orpheus Liberum atque Solem unum esse deum eundemque demonstrans de ornatu vestituque eius in sacris Liberalibus ita scribit”; cf. frs. 236 and 239 and Orphic Hymns 8 and 34 addressed to Helios and Apollo respectively. 7. The children of Helios and Perseis (daughter of Okeanos) are said to be Circe and (King) Aietes. Circe is famous for her love of the long-suffering Odysseus (Odyssey, 10, Theogony, 957). King Aietes (or Aeetes) was later cast as the villain who would not surrender the Golden Fleece to Jason and the Argonauts ( see Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica). 8. Relation with magic: see Faraone, C.A., Ancient Greek Love Magic (Cambridge MA 1999), pp. 105, 133, 139-141. For Aietes, owner of the Golden Fleece, see Pind. Pyth. 4.160. Mimnermus calls it a golden thalamus ‘where dwell the rays of the Sun’, fr. 11.5-8; cf. Eur. Phaeth. fr. 781, where the king, Phaethon’s father, keeps his gold locked up. For the link between gold and the Sun see Gernet, L. “Value in Greek Myth”, in Gordon, R.L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society, (Cambridge 1981), p. 137. 9. Euripides also speaks of a thalamus in which the king, father of Phaethon, keeps his gold locked up. This is the same place where at the end of the drama the body of Phaethon is laid and to which the Queen is said to have the keys (Phae. fr.781). Also see Gernet, L. “Value in Greek Myth”, in Gordon, R.L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society, (Cambridge 1981), p. 140. 10. Phaethon already in Theogony was perceived, like Hyperion, as an hypostasis of the sun-god Helios, Hes. Th. 987; Nagy, G., Greek Mythology and Poetics (Ithaca – London 1990), p. 235. Also see Diog. Apoll. DK 64 A 8; Democr. DK 68 B 30; Aesch. fr. 83; Boyancé, P., “Apollon solaire”, in Mélanges d’archéologie, d’épigraphie et d’histoire offerts à Jérôme Carcopino (Paris 1966), pp. 149-170. For Phaethon see also Nonn. D. 38.167 and Ovid Met. 1.747-79; also see Wise, V.M., “Flight Myths in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: An Interpretation of Phaethon and Daedalus”, Ramus 6 (1977), pp. 44-59. 11. Ovid Met. 2.1-366: When the grandson of Inachus mocked Phaethon about the identity of his father, the latter set for the palace of Helios to verify his parentage. Notice that Phaethon calls Helios Phoebus, an epithet traditionally associated with Apollo. To convince his son, Helius promised to grant him one wish; Phaethon asked to drive his father’s chariot. Despite Helios’ warnings and instructions, Phaethon, inexperienced as he was, could not control the four horses of the chariot, which ran wild. In their course they burnt the mountains and dried up the rivers until Earth complained and Zeus had to intervene by striking down Phaethon with his thunderbolt. His sisters, the Heliads, were inconsolable; they devoted themselves to mourning until they were transformed into poplars. For a comic account of Helios and Zeus’ dialogue on the death of Phaethon see Luc. DDeor. 24 (25). 12. Helius was the grandfather of Medea, the sorceress and heroine of the Argonautica. When Medea took revenge upon her husband’s new bride, Glauce, and Glauce’s father, Creon, Helius provided Medea with a golden chariot drawn by a dragon, to escape from Jason and the Corinthians. See E. Med. 13. Aia was a kingdom located in the south-eastern corner of the Black Sea. References to it appear in the myths of “Phrixus and the Ram”, “Jason and the Argonauts”, and Circe, in book 10 of the Odyssey. Caucasiologists such as M. Inadze, followed by W.E.D. Allen and C. Toumanoff connect the name Aia with the Hayassa-Azzi tribes who inhabited the territory which included Sinope and Trebizond on the southern shore of the Black Sea and extended northeast through the Kola highlands to the Phasis river. This historical state disappeared in the 8th c. BC due to the invasions of Urartu to its south and, probably, the Cimmerians in the north. Its successor was called Colchis, known to the Urartians as Qulha and to the Georgians as Kola. Greek mythographers after the 7th c. BC replaced Aia with Colchis, or transformed Aia into the capital of Colchis and/or moved it to the island of Sicily. In the 8th c. BC however, Homer uses the term Aia, not Colchis, and understands by it the south-eastern corner of the Black Sea, not Sicily. According to the myths mentioned above, Aia was ruled by King Aietes (son of Helios, the sun god, and Perse, daughter of Oceanus). Aietes was the brother of Circe and Pasiphae and the father of Chalciope, Media, and a son, Apsyrtus. As offspring of the sun, the Aiakids were immediately recognizable by their fiery eyes. See Allen, W.E.D., “Ex Ponto III and IV”, Bedi Karthlisa 32-33 (1959), pp. 39-40 and (1960), pp. 79-92; see also Toumanoff, C., Studies in Christian Caucasian History (Georgetown 1963), pp. 57-62. 14. Machinist, P., The Epic of Tukulti-Ninurta I (Diss., Yale University 1978), pp. 74-79, cf. 160ff. For fleeces of the Sun see Mimn. 11.2; Lesky, A., A History of Greek Literature, (transl). de Heer & Willis (London 1966), pp. 26-62; Burkert, W., Structure and Ηistory in Greek Μythology and Ritual (Berkeley 1979), pp. 123-125. For the Sun god in the Hittite religion, see Burkert, W., Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley 1979), pp. 128-129. Also see Chester Beatty Papyrus IV ANET 15: I. Lévi, I., Mélanges (Brussels 1955)· Cumont, F., Mélanges (Brussels 1936), p. 819. For the myth of Tefnut see West, S., “The Greek version of the legend of Tefnut”, JEA 55 (1969), pp. 161-183; West, M.L., The East face of the Helicon (Oxford 1997), pp. 507-508. Ovid wrote about Phaethon in Met. 2.42. 15. Pind. fr. 129.1; A Sumerian text: Kramer, S.N., Two Elegies on a Pushkin Museum Tablet. A New Sumerian literary Genre (Moscow 1960), (transl.) Heimpel, W. JCS 38 (1986), pp. 62ff. On Egypt: Wiedermann, A., Die Religion der alten Ägypter (Münster 1890), pp. 45-59; Morenz, S., Ägyptische Religion (Stuttgart 1960), pp. 218. Generally, Dieterich, A., Nekyia2 (Leipzig 1915), pp. 19-34; cf. Heimpel, W., “The Sun at Night and the Doors of Heaven”, JCS 38.2 (1986), pp. 146-150; Astour, M.C., “The Nether World and its Denizens at Ugarit”, in Alster, B. (ed.), Death in Mesopotamia. XXVIe rencontre assyriologique internationale (Mesopotamia 8, Copenhagen 1980), pp. 232ff. ; Healey, J.F., “The Sun Deity and the Underworld, Mesopotamia and Ugarit”, in Alster, B. (ed.), Death in Mesopotamia. XXVIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Mesopotamia 8, Copenhagen 1980), pp. 239-242. 16. cf. Burkert, W., “Das Proömium des Parmenides und die Katabasis des Pythagoras”, Phronesis 14 (1969), pp. 18ff. 17. Cattle of the sun in the Odyssey see Page, D.L., Folktales in Homer’s Odyssey, (Cambridge MA 1973), pp. 79-83. 18. Hdt. 9.93; Scylax 26; the Hyperborean way, Hdt. 4.33. 19. h.Cer. 74-87; Penglase, C., Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod (London – New York 1994), pp. 129, 148-9, 154. Demeter’s encounter with Hecate and Helios, during which the goddess discovers Persephone’s whereabouts, follows the pattern of the Mesopotamia intercessory encounter with the sun god. 20. In the Odyssey 8.266, a singer tells the tale of how Aphrodite and Ares secretly lay together in the bed of her husband, Lord Hephaestus. Helios, who sees everything that his light touches, observed the lovers and told Hephaestus of the deception. Hephaestus promptly set a trap and humiliated the lovers in front of all the immortals. 21. Vidal-Naquet, P., “Land and sacrifice in the Odyssey: Α study of religious and mythical meanings”, in Gordon, R.L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society (Cambridge 1981), p. 88, comments on the sacrilege as anti-sacrifice; cf. Hdt. 3.18 with regard to the ‘Table of the Sun’ which was considered an heirloom from the Golden Age. Also Vernant, J.-P., “Sacrificial and alimentary codes in Hesiod’s myth of Prometheus” in Gordon, R.L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society (Cambridge 1981). 22. Cf. Hom. Od. 12.128-261; also see Page, D., Folktales in Homer’s Odyssey (Cambridge MA 1973), fn. 19. Circe warns Odysseus about his adventure on the island of the Sun (see excerpt). 23. For the Argonauts' experience on the island of the Sun and his cattle see Apol.Rhod. 4.965. It is said that Phaethousa, the youngest daughter of Helios, was grazing the sheep in the dewy glades with a silver crook in her hand, while Lampetia looked after the cows and walked behind, swinging a staff of gleaming copper. None of the cattle was dark; they were all milk-white with golden horns. 24. In Corinth, Helius competed against Poseidon to become the patron god of the city. The Corinthians did not want to offend either god, so they wisely worshipped both gods. The peak of the Acrocorinth was dedicated to Helius, while Poseidon received the Isthmus. 25. The festival was called Halieia; see Nilsson, M.P., Griechische Feste von religiöser Bedeutung mit Ausschluß der Attischen (Berlin 1906), p. 427. 26. Notice the tradition about the “City of the Sun” which referred to a city of slaves and could be associated with the role of the Sun as witness of all injustice. The myth was coined in the Hellenistic years by Aristonicus of Pergamum. 27. Plin. HN 34.63. 28. Rhodes and Helios were praised by Pindar in O. 7.54ff. 29. Pl. Smp. 220d; Lg. 887e; cf. Hes. Op. 339 and Pl. Ap.2 6c; Ar. Pax 406 said that the practice of sacrificing to the Sun and the Moon distinguished the Barbarians from the Greeks (but for Athens see SEG 33.115.12). Hdt. 7.54.2 described the libation of Xerxes in the Hellespont adding that he was not certain if it was offered to the Sun or the Hellespont itself. 30. Hdt. 1.130-5. 31. Frazer, J.G., The Worship of Nature (London 1926), ch. 12. 32. Frazer, J.G., The Worship of Nature (London 1926), ch. 12. 33. The cult of Mithras dates from the time when the Hindu and Persians still constituted one ethnic group, because the god appears in the religion and the sacred scripts of both groups, i.e. in the Vedas and in the Avesta. See Oldenberg, H., “Die Religion des Veda” (Berlin 1894). On the distinction between Mithras and the Sun see recently Ulansey, D., “Mithras and the hypercosmic sun”, in Hinnells, J.R (ed.), Studies in Mithraism: Papers associated with the Mithraic Panel organized on the occasion of the XVlth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (Rome 1994), pp. 257-64. 34. Mithras was particularly celebrated in Rome after the conquest of Pergamum by the Romans and Mithraism was often viewed as a western phenomenon. For the eastern origins of Mithraism see Kreyenbroek, P.G., “Mithra and Ahreman in Iranian Cosmogonies”, in Hinnells, J.R (ed.), Studies in Mithraism: Papers associated with the Mithraic Panel organized on the occasion of the XVlth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (Rome 1994), pp. 173-82 and Russell, J.R., “On the Armeno-Iranian roots of Mithraism”, in Hinnells, J.R (ed.), Studies in Mithraism: Papers associated with the Mithraic Panel organized on the occasion of the XVlth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (Rome 1994), pp. 183-93. Mithraism was very popular among Roman soldiers because of its emphasis on victory, power, and security in the next world. Temples and shrines were dedicated to Mithras across the empire. In 67 BC, the first congregation of Mithras-worshipping
soldiers took place in Rome under the command of General Pompey. In 70 AD, the legio XV Apollinaris, dedicated a grotto at the banks of the Danube to Mithras and thereafter the construction of Mithraea expanded; cf. Porph. Antr. 6. Marcus Aurelius initiated the worship of Sol Invictus, while Diocletian named Mithras “protector of the Empire”. 35. Fingrut, D., The legacy of the Roman Empire's final pagan state religion (Toronto 1993). According to Pliny, Tiridates, the Parthian king, said: “I have come to you, my god, to pay homage, as I do to Mithras”. At one point, Pliny refers to Tiridates and his group as magi and he goes on to relate how they initiated Nero into their magical rites. See D.C. 63.1-7; Plin. HN3 0.6.16-17, Str. 10.39. |