Ave!
Amulet, Roman Mithras Cult, ca. 1st-3rd Cent, Extremely Rare!
Lead; 31mm/32.7gm
Con/ About As Cast; eye-pleasing yellow/orange lead patina.
Description/ Head and neck of a male head wearing pointed Phrygian cap or helmet which also covers his ears. Not broken from a larger piece, the bottom was intentionally cast flat.
Seller's Notes/ In nearly all ancient representations of Mithras, he is wearing his Phrygian cap, as seen in our example. Whether this artifact is an amulet, a talisman, or just proof of initiation into the cult, is moot. But it was most certainly carried at all times by an initiated member. As noted above, this amulet is ridiculously rare. After exhaustive searches, we can no similar example having ever been sold to the public.
Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity Mithra, the Roman Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice remains debatable. The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army, but not limited soldiers only, from the 1st to the 4th century CE.
Worshipers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in dedicated mithraeum, underground temples that survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its center in Rome, and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far east as Roman Dacia, as far north as Roman Britain, and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.
Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity. In the 4th century, Mithraists faced persecution from Christians, and the religion was subsequently suppressed and eliminated in the Roman Empire by the end of the century. As this subject is much too involved for further discussion, please click here for all.
