Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)Legge, Francis
Religion
Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)
Legge, Francis
Christianity and other religions; Religions
The Legend, however, does not end with the death of the Bull. In the
chapel at Heddernheim, the great slab on which the Tauroctony is
sculptured in bas-relief is pivoted so as to swing round and display on
its other face another scene which we find repeated in a slightly
different form on many monuments[875]. Mithras and the Sun-God are here
shown as partaking of a ritual feast or banquet in which grapes seem to
figure. At Heddernheim, the grapes are tendered to the two gods over the
body of the dead bull by the two torch-bearing figures Cautes and
Cautopates, while on an arch above them various quadrupeds, dogs, a
boar, a sheep, and a cow, are seen springing into life. In other
monuments, the same scene generally appears as a banquet at which
Mithras and Helios are seated side by side at a table sometimes alone,
but at others in company with different persons who can hardly be any
other than initiates or worshippers[876]. That this represents some sort
of sacrament where a drink giving immortality was administered seems
probable, and its likeness to representations of the Last Supper is
sufficient to explain the complaint of Justin Martyr and other Fathers
that the devil had set on the Mithraists to imitate in this and other
respects the Church of Christ[877]. The final scene of all comes when we
see Mithras arresting the glorious chariot of the Sun-God drawn by four
white horses, and, mounting therein, being driven off by the ray-crowned
Helios himself to the abode of light above the firmament[878]. In this
also, it is easy to see a likeness between representations of the
Ascension of Mithras and that of Elijah or even of Christ[879].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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