were veiled or otherwise hidden, and at a given moment revealed to the congregation. It is possible that such a ceremony may be represented on a relief from Arčer now at Sofia, which has recently been published by Kazarow* and explained by Rostowzew,t where we see a kneeling figure, wearing the 'Phrygian' cap, partly hidden by a veil held by two other figures.

It should be observed that no mention is made in this series of inscriptions of the 'Soldier,' of whom we read again in a well-known passage of Tertullian in which the analogy between the militia Christi' and the sacred warfare of the Mithraist is developed, and perhaps also in a Greek inscription from Amasia which speaks of 2 στρατιώτης εὐσεβής. This omission may perhaps be explained by the supposition that the Mithraic recruits' formed the rank-and-file in the congregation. The symbols of the Sacred Crow' were conveyed to one of the initiates mentioned in the inscriptions of S. Silvestro 'anno tricensimo acceptionis suæ'; up to that time, we must suppose, he had remained a simple miles.‡

We have a striking but inconclusive piece of monumental evidence bearing upon these questions. A relief found at Konjica in Bosnia, now in the Museum at Sarajevo (pl. II), represents what has been called the 'Mithraic Communion.' Here we see two figures reclining on a couch, one of them with a drinking-horn in his hand, in the attitudes in which, on other monuments, Mithras and Helios are represented. We may suppose that the heavenly banquet was reproduced on earth by the 'Father' and the Sun's Courser.' On either side of the couch stand two figures. Those on the left are easy to identify. One wears the mask of the 'Crow,' the other the cap of the 'Persian.' On the extreme right we see the 'Lion'; but between him and the central group is a figure, unhappily mutilated, in whom we should expect to find the Hidden One.' It must be remembered, however, that there is some evidence for the existence of other animal disguises in the Mithraic cult. Porphyry,

* Archiv für Religionswissenschaft,' 1912, Pl. I, 4.

+ Представленіе о монархической власти въ Скиѳіи и на Боспорѣ, р. 53. Cf. Mr Phythian-Adams' discussion of these points, Journal of Roman Studies,' ii, p. 53 ff. The phrase 'miles pius' occurs on two inscriptions from Wiesbaden.

in a corrupt passage of the 'De Abstinentia' (IV, 16), speaks of Eagles' and 'Hawks,' as well as the 'Lions who, as he tells us, 'partook of' the Mithraic Sacrament while the 'Crows' waited upon them; for the Eagles' we have independent evidence.* Porphyry also tells us that women were admitted to the grade of 'hyæna'; but this is probably a copyist's error for Xéaiva, since in a tomb discovered in Tripoli were buried a husband and wife, described as 'leo' and 'lea.' A Christian writer of the fourth century tells us how the initiates 'flapped their wings like birds, imitating the voice of the crow, whilst others roared like lions'; so that it is abundantly clear that Mithraism plunged its roots deep in the past of the race and perpetrated those strange masquerades in animal disguise which still figure in the worships of primitive races. †

Had this been all that it had to offer, it would be hard to account for the hold which it acquired upon the souls of men. We may be sure that the grotesque externals of the cult were transmuted into symbols whose absurdity was forgotten in the glory of the prospect which was unfolded before the eyes of the worshipper. We would gladly know more of the terrifying ordeals to which the initiates of Mithras are said to have been subjected. The Christian writers who describe them probably knew them only by vague report, and the dark tales of human sacrifice at which they hint may safely be rejected ‡; the kernel of truth which they contain is to be sought in the simulated death which was followed by that rebirth to immortality' so ardently craved by the other-worldly.' Passing suddenly from darkness to light, the worshipper was doubtless permitted to behold such visions as those

* Cf. p. 113, note. Two inscriptions of Lycaonia which mention aeroí may be Mithraic.

Loisy, in a recent article in the 'Revue d'histoire et de littérature religieuses,' iv, p. 497 ff., discusses at length the evidence for the Mithraic ceremonies of initiation, etc., and emphasises their primitive character. As survivals of prehistoric practice, they throw a light on early Iranian religion which we seek in vain from the sacred books of later Zoroastrianism. The author of the life of Commodus in the 'Historia Augusta' tells us that the Emperor on one occasion perpetrated a real murder instead of a feigned one. Tertullian's account of the initiation of the miles, who 'sub gladio redimit coronam,' and having so done, rejects the crown, using the words 'Mithras is my crown,' is obscure.

described in the 'liturgy' of the Paris papyrus, and instructed in the mystic pass-words which he must one day use to unlock the gates of the eight heavens.*

We know somewhat more of the cosmogony taught by a learned clergy to those who sought in religion intellectual as well as emotional satisfaction. The ingenuity of Cumont, working upon the hymns of the Avesta and the Mithraic monuments, has restored the outlines of the mythical fabric. In the religion of Zoroaster, Mithras, as we have seen, was the champion of Ahura the Wise and the dispenser of his grace; his visible manifestation was the heavenly light which is shed abroad not only by the sun in his strength, but also by the dawn which reddens the mountain-tops and the afterglow which gilds the western horizon. This triple Mithras' is symbolised in Art by the addition to the central figure (presently to be described) of two torchbearers, one on either side, bearing the titles Cautes and Cautopates. Under the influence of astrological speculation the triad acquired a new meaning; and the torchbearers bore the symbols of the Bull and the Scorpion, the zodiacal signs entered by the sun at the commencement of spring and autumn.

As prince of the air, Mithras was the 'mediator' (usoirns) between Heaven and Earth, God and Man-a fruitful conception which suggests a Christian analogy. But beside this he was the hero of a legend, several episodes of which are represented upon our monuments. We see, for example, the birth of Mithras from the Rock -Petra genitrix' in the inscriptions-which perhaps typified the solid vault of heaven. We see the divine child worshipped by shepherds, or half-hidden by the branches of a tree-scenes of which the interpretation is a matter of guess-work. It is easier to grasp the meaning of the scene in which Mithras, the divine archer, discharges his arrows at a rock from whence flows a stream of water; the rock is here symbolical of the cloud pierced by the sun's rays. In another group

Celsus (as quoted by Origen) speaks of a 'ladder with seven gates and after it an eighth' (symbolising the planetary and stellar heavens) as used in the mysteries of Mithras; and in a Mithreum at Ostia we find six semicircles traced in mosaic on the floor of the nave, while on the sidewalls the planets and the constellations of the Zodiac are represented.