Mithraism

The Mitra de Cabra is the only round bulto mythical tauroctonia found on the Iberian peninsula.

It is called Mithraism or Mithras mysteries (in Persian: مهرپرستی‎) to a Mystery religion widespread in the Roman Empire between the 1st and 4th centuries AD. C. in which a divinity called Mithras was worshiped and which had a special implantation among the Roman soldiers. Although inspired by the Iranian cult of the Zoroastrian (yazata) deity Mithras, the Roman Mithras is linked to new and distinctive imagery, and the degree of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debated. Although the deity Mithras is documented in Asia Minor since the XV century BC. C., Roman Mithraism was mentioned for the first time by the Roman poet Statius († 96).

Mithraism was particularly popular among Roman legionaries, but also included other officials, merchants, and even slaves. Women, on the other hand, were strictly excluded. Mithras worshipers had a complex system of seven degrees of initiation and communal ritual meals. The initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "joined by the handshake". They met in subterranean temples, now called mitrea, which survive in large numbers, of which the oldest documented dates from the mid-century II, and the most recent from the mid-century V. The cult seems 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 in lesser extent in Roman Syria. The cult reached its height in the late II century and in the III, after the accession of the Emperor Commodus (180-192). The relationship with the Roman sun god Sol grew closer over time, until Mithras and Sol often ended up merging. As Sol Invictus Mithras, the god was venerated by numerous emperors, especially since Aurelian, including the young Constantine I (306-337). However, with the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Mithraism disappeared within a few generations and fell into almost total oblivion until it was rediscovered in modern times thanks to archaeological finds. Mithraism is considered a rival to early Christianity. The practice of Mithraism, like that of all pagan religions, was outlawed in 391 by Emperor Theodosius. The Mithraists suffered persecution from the Christians, and the religion was suppressed and eliminated in the Roman Empire by the end of the century.

The origins of this religion are not precisely known, although scholars agree that it came to the Roman world from the East, specifically from Asia Minor. Like the other mystery cults of the Greco-Roman world, Mithraism revolved around secrets that were only revealed to the initiated. Upon entering the cult, each new member was sworn to the strictest silence. Therefore, our knowledge of Mithraism is based solely on the descriptions of external chroniclers and on the many surviving images of Mithraic altars. There are material testimonies of the practice of this religion in numerous places of the ancient Roman Empire: in Rome and Ostia, as well as in Mauritania, Britain and the border provinces along the Rhine and Danube rivers, consisting of remains of temples, inscriptions and works of art depicting the god or other aspects of the religion. Faced with this relative abundance of archaeological remains, there are very few references in classical texts to this religion. Iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, sacrificing a bull or sharing a banquet with the Sun god. In some 420 sites They have found materials related to this cult. Among the objects found there are about 1,000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull slaughter scene (tauroctony) and about 400 other monuments. It has been estimated that there were at least 680 mitrea in the city of Rome. No written accounts or theology of the religion survive; the information that can be gleaned from inscriptions and from brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature is limited. The interpretation of physical evidence remains problematic and controversial.

The content of the doctrine of Mithraism is not very clear. Since virtually no literary information about the cult of Mithras has survived (if it existed at all), all contemporary reflections on its content and forms are based on pictorial representations bearing no explanatory inscriptions, and inscriptions usually consisting only of short words. dedications. Therefore, a high degree of speculation must be taken into account in all contemporary interpretations and, especially, in all excessively rigorous representations.

Origins of Mithraism

According to Franz Cumont, in his study published at the beginning of the XX century, the origin of Mithraism lies in the ancient Iran. In fact, Mithra is an Indo-Iranian divinity whose origin can be traced back to the 2nd millennium BC. C.: his name is mentioned for the first time in a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitani, written around 1400 BC. C.

In India, he figures in Vedic hymns as a god of light, associated with Váruna. In the Iranian Avesta , he is a beneficent god, collaborator of Ahura Mazda, and is nicknamed "judge of souls". It is possible that his cult reached the West from Iran thanks to the spread of Zoroastrianism, of which it would be a kind of heresy. However, current studies of Mithraism tend to consider that a direct affiliation between Indo-Iranian Mithra and Mithraism cannot be admitted, which is sometimes called Mithras or Mithras, using the Greek form of his name to differentiate him from the former.

Early Mithraism

The existing information on Mithraism (quite fragmentary) refers to its practice during the Late Roman Empire. It was a mystery religion, of an initiation type, based on oral and ritual transmission from initiate to initiate and not on a body of sacred writings. It collects the dualistic conceptions of Mazdaist origin (Zurvanism). As in all mystery religions, adherents were required to keep the cult's rituals secret. For all these reasons, written documentation concerning Mithraism is practically non-existent.

The study of this religion has been based mainly on the iconography that decorated the mitreos.

The Mythrean

Mitra and the bullfresh from the city of Marino (Italy).

The cult of Mithras was performed in temples called mitreos (Latin mithraeum, pl. mithraea). These spaces were at first natural caverns, and later, artificial constructions imitating them, dark and windowless. They had a limited capacity; most of them could accommodate no more than thirty or forty people.

In a typical mithraeum, three parts can be distinguished:

• the antechamber
• the spelaeum or spelunca (the cave), elongated rectangular room decorated with paintings and two long banquets along each of the walls for sacred banquets;
• the sanctuary, at the end of the cave, in which were the altar and the image - in painting, bas-relieve or statue exempt - from Mitra enslaving a white weapon on the right shoulder of a bull, known as Mitra Tauróctonos.

Mithraeans have been found in many of the countries that belonged to the Roman Empire. Some have been turned into crypts under Christian churches. The highest concentration of Mithraeans is found in the capital, Rome, but they have also been discovered in places as far apart as northern England and Palestine. Its distribution by the geography of the Empire is related to the barracks and military installations.

Mythology and iconography

There are no texts on Mithraism written by the adherents themselves, so the only sources to learn about this religion are the sacred images found in the Mithraeans.

1. Mythical relation

According to the story that has been reconstructed from the images of the Mithraeans and the few written testimonies, the god Mithras was born near a sacred spring, under a sacred tree, from a rock (the petra generatrix; Mithras is called de petra natus or petrogenitus). This ties in with the Armenian traditions of the cave of Meher (Mithras). At the time of his birth, he was wearing the Phrygian cap, a torch and a knife. He was adored by shepherds shortly after his birth. He drank water from the sacred spring. With his knife, he cut the fruit of the sacred tree, and with the leaves of that tree he made his clothes.

He found the primordial bull when he was grazing in the mountains. She seized him by the horns and mounted him, but, in his wild gallop, the beast made him dismount. However, Mithras continued to cling to his horns and the bull dragged him for a long time, until the animal was exhausted. The god then grabbed it by its hind legs and loaded it onto his shoulders. He took him, alive, enduring many sufferings, to his cave. This journey of Mithras with the bull on his shoulders is called transitus .

When Mithras arrived at the cave, a raven sent by the Sun warned him that he had to make the sacrifice and the god, holding the bull, plunged the knife into its flank. From the spine of the bull came wheat and came from his blood. His semen, collected and purified by the moon, produced useful animals for man. Then came the dog, which fed on the grain, the scorpion, which seized the bull's testicles with its pincers, and the snake.

2. Iconography

Mitra killing the bull sculpture of the British Museum, belonging to the Tauroctony.

Some paintings show Mithras carrying a rock on his back, like Atlas in Greek mythology, or wearing a cloak whose inner lining represents the starry sky. Near a Mithraean near Hadrian's Wall, a bronze statue of Mithras emerging from an egg-shaped zodiacal ring was found, now kept at Newcastle University. An inscription found in Rome suggests that Mithras could be identified with the creator god of Orphism, Phanes, who emerged from the cosmic egg at the beginning of time, bringing the universe into being. This opinion is reinforced by a bas-relief in the Museo Estense, in Modena, where Fanes is seen emerging from an egg, surrounded by the twelve signs of the Zodiac, in an image very similar to the one preserved in Newcastle.

The central image of Mithraism is the tauroctony or Mithra Tauróctonos, which represents the ritual sacrifice by Mithras of the sacred bull. This representation has fixed iconographic elements: Mithras appears wearing a Phrygian cap and looks compassionately at his victim; In many representations, the head of Mithras at the time of the sacrifice of the bull is turned backwards as if he were carrying out the immolation in disgust. Leaning over the bull, he slits its throat with a sacrificial knife; Grain flows from the bull's wound; next to the bull, there are various animals: a scorpion, which squeezes the bull's testicles with its pincers; a snake; a dog, which feeds on the grain that sprouts from the wound; and a raven. Sometimes a lion and a cup also appear. The image is flanked by two figures carrying torches, called Cautes and Cautópates, in whom the double epiphany of Mithras has been appreciated by some authors. The scene appears located in a kind of cave, perhaps the representation of the mitreus itself, or, according to some interpretations, of the cosmos, since the sun and the moon are present.

3. Interpretations

Franz Cumont, author of a classic study on the religion of Mithras, interprets this image in light of Iranian mythology. He links the image to texts that refer to the sacrifice of a bull by Ahriman, the god of evil; from the bloody remains of the bull all beings would be born later. According to Cumont's hypothesis, Ahriman would later be replaced by Mithras in the mythical story and in this form would have reached the eastern Mediterranean.

Statue of Mitra at the Vatican Museums.

David Ulansey offered a radically different explanation of the Mithras Taurochthonous image, based on astrological symbolism. According to his theory, the image of Tauróctonos is the representation of Mithras as a god so powerful that he is capable of transforming the very order of the Universe. The bull would be the symbol of the constellation of Taurus. In the beginnings of astrology, in Mesopotamia, between 4000 and 2000 B.C. C., the Sun was in Taurus during the spring equinox. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the Sun is at the vernal equinox in a different constellation every 2,160 years or so, so it happened to be in Aries around 2000 BC. C., marking the end of the astrological era of Taurus.

The sacrifice of the bull by Mithras would symbolize this change, caused, according to believers, by the omnipotence of their god. This would be in line with the animals that appear in the images of Mithra Tauroctonos: the dog, the snake, the raven, the scorpion, the lion, the cup and the bull are interpreted as the constellations of Canis Minor, Hydra, Corvus, Scorpio, Leo, Aquarius and Taurus, all of them on the celestial equator during the Taurus era. The hypothesis would also explain the profusion of zodiacal images in Mithraic iconography. The precession of the equinoxes was discovered and studied by the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicaea in the II century BCE. c.

Another interpretation considers that the sacrifice of the bull represents the release of the energy of Nature. The snake, as in the symbol of the Ouroboros, would be an allusion to the cycle of life; the dog would represent Humanity, symbolically feeding on the sacrifice, and the scorpion could be the symbol of the victory of death. The two companions of Mithras, who carry torches and are called Cautes and Cautópates, would respectively represent the rising and setting of the sun.

For the faithful, the sacrifice of the bull undoubtedly had a salvific character and participation in the mysteries guaranteed immortality.

Initiation levels

In Mithraism, there were seven levels of initiation, which may be related to the seven planets of astronomy at the time (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), in this same order, according to the interpretation of Joseph Campbell. Most of the members reached only the fourth grade (leo) and only a select few reached the higher ranks. The levels, known thanks to a text by Saint Jerome confirmed by several inscriptions, were the following:

• Corax (both);
• Cryphius (κρ️φιος(oculto). Other authors interpret this rank as Nymphus (positive);
• Thousands (solda). His attributes were the crown and the sword;
• Leo (leon). In the rituals they presented to Mithra the offerings of sacrifices;
• Persians (panting);
• Heliodromus (solar emissary). His attributes were torch, whip, and crown.
• Pater (father). Their attributes (the frigid hat, the rod and the ring) remind those of the Christian bishop.

In the rites, the initiates wore animal masks relative to their level of initiation and were divided into two groups: the servants, below the degree of leo and the participants, the rest.

Rituals

For the reconstruction of the Mithraic rituals, only the texts of the Fathers of the Church that criticize Mithraism, and the iconography found in the Mithraeans are available.

Women were excluded from the mysteries of Mithras. As for the men, it seems that there was no minimum age required to be admitted, and several children were even initiated. The language used in the rituals was Greek, with some formulas in Persian (probably incomprehensible to most of the faithful), although Latin was progressively introduced.

Mitra's banquet in a bas-relief that is preserved at the Louvre Museum.

It seems that the main rite of the Mithraic religion was a ritual banquet, which may have had certain similarities (in its external appearance) with the Christian Eucharist, or rather with an agape-style meal. According to the Christian commentator Justin, the food offered at the banquet was bread and water, but archaeological findings suggest that it was the meat of sacrificed animals and libations of wine, or perhaps bread and wine, as in the Christian rite.^{[citation needed]} This ceremony was held in the central part of the mitreo, in which two parallel stools offered enough space for the faithful to lie down, according to Roman custom, to participate in the banquet. The Ravens (Corax) served as servers at sacred meals. The rite also included the sacrifice of a bull. Other animals were also sacrificed.^{[citation needed]}

The statue of Mithras Tauroctonos undoubtedly played a role in these rites, although it is not entirely clear what. In some Mithraeans, revolving pedestals have been discovered, which would allow the image to be alternately shown and hidden from the faithful.

At some point in the evolution of Mithraism, the rite of taurobolium or baptism of the faithful with the blood of a bull, also practiced by other oriental religions, was also used. We know from Tertullian the severe Christian condemnation of these practices.

Other rites must have been related to initiation ceremonies. Thanks to Tertullian, the initiation rite of the Soldier (Miles) is known: the candidate was "baptized" (probably by immersion), he was branded with a hot iron and finally he was tested by the "rite of the crown" (the crown was placed on his head, and the neophyte had to drop it, proclaiming that Mithras was his crown). Later, the initiates attended a ritual and simulated death, in which the officiant was a pater, possibly linked to reincarnation as the last step of the initiation ceremony. In the degree of Leo, we know from Porphyry that honey was placed on the tongue of newborns and that this practice comes from the Iranian cult in which honey represented the moon. For the older initiates, honey was poured over the hands and they licked it as a sign of communion. Surely, each level of initiation would have its own ritual.

Festivities

December 25 (approximately coinciding with the winter solstice) commemorates the birth of Mithras. They were also sacred on the 16th of each month. The followers of Mithras also sanctified Sunday, the day of the Sun.

History of Mithraism

Before Rome

In Achaemenid Persia, the official religion was Zoroastrianism, which postulates the existence of a single god, Ahura Mazda. This divinity is the only one mentioned in the surviving inscriptions from the time of Darius the Great (521-485 BC). However, an inscription, found in Susa, from the time of Artaxerxes II (404-358 BC) survives, in which Mithras is mentioned along with Ahura Mazda and another deity called Anahita.

Currency with the face of Mitrídates VI of the Kingdom of the Pontus, also nicknamed Eupator.

Is there a link between this Persian Mithra, and its Indo-Iranian ancestors, and that of the mystery religion of the Roman Empire? This was believed by the initiator of studies on the Mithraic religion, Franz Cumont, but currently the issue is far from clear.^{[citation required]}

A possible hint of the link between Persian and Roman Mithras can be found in the kingdoms of Parthia and the Kingdom of Pontus, many of whose kings bore the name Mithridates, perhaps etymologically related to Mithras. On the other hand, in Pergamum, in Asia Minor, Greek sculptors produced the first bas-reliefs with the image of Mithras Tauroctonos. Although the cult of Mithras was hardly widespread in Hellas, these images perhaps mark the path of Mithras to Rome.

The first reference in Greco-Roman historiography to the cult of Mithras is found in the work of the historian Plutarch, who mentions that the Cilician pirates celebrated secret rites related to Mithras in the year 67 BC. c.

Mithraism in the High Roman Empire

It is probable that the introducers of Mithraism into the Roman Empire were the legionnaires who had served Rome on the eastern borders of the Empire. The first material evidence of the cult of Mithras dates from the year 71 or 72 of our era: they are inscriptions made by Roman soldiers who came from the garrison of Carnuntum, in the province of Pannonia Superior, and who had probably been in the East before., in war against the Parthians and in the disturbances of Jerusalem.

Around the year 80 AD, the Roman author Statius mentions the scene of the tauroctony in his Thebaid (I, 719,720). Plutarch, in his Life of Pompey , makes it clear that the cult of Mithras was already known in his time.

By the late II century, Mithraism was widespread in the Roman army, as well as among bureaucrats, merchants, and even among the slaves. Most of the archaeological evidence comes from the German borders of the Empire. Small cult objects related to Mithras have been found in archaeological excavations from Romania to Hadrian's Wall.

Mithraism in the Late Empire

The emperors of the III century were generally supportive of Mithraism, because its strongly hierarchical structure served to reinforce their own can. Thus, Mithras became the symbol of the authority and the triumph of the emperors. From the time of Commodus, who was initiated into his mysteries, the adherents of the cult came from all social classes.

Numerous mitreans have been found in the empire's frontier garrisons. In England, at least three have been identified, along Hadrian's Wall, at Housesteads, Carrawburgh and Rudchester. Remains of another mithraean have been discovered in London. Other Mithraic sanctuaries erected at this time are in the province of Dacia (where a Mithraean was found at Alba Iulia in 2003), and in Numidia in North Africa.

The greatest concentration of Mithraeans, however, is found in Rome itself, and in the nearby port city of Ostia, with a total of twelve identified temples, although possibly several hundred existed. The importance of Mithraism in Rome can be judged from the findings: more than 75 pieces of sculpture, a hundred inscriptions, and ruins of temples and sanctuaries throughout the city and its suburbs. One of the most prominent mitreos, which preserves the altar and the stone pews, was originally built under a Roman house (which seems to have been common practice) and survives in the crypt on which the Basilica of San Clemente was built, in Rome.

Dissemination and religious space of Mithraism

In the period of maximum splendor, it is considered that the largest number of Mithraic temples in Rome was no more than a hundred and that each of them had no more than a hundred faithful, so the volume of practitioners would be reduced to about ten thousand in the metropolis, according to Windengren. The importance given to Mithraism in the Roman Empire is given by its open competition with Christianity and its status as a military religion strongly implanted in the legions, rather than by the number of adherents.

End of Mithraism

At the end of the III century, there was a syncretism between the Mithraic religion and certain solar cults of Eastern origin, which crystallized in the new religion of Sol Invictus. This religion was established as official in the Empire in the year 274 by the Emperor Aurelian, who erected a splendid temple in Rome dedicated to the new divinity and created a state body of priests to worship him, whose top leader bore the title of pontifex solis invicti. Aureliano attributed his victories in the East to Sol Invictus . This syncretism, however, did not lead to the disappearance of Mithraism, which continued to exist as an unofficial cult. Many of the senators of the time professed both Mithraism and the Sol Invictus religion.

However, this period marked the beginning of the decline of Mithraism, due to the territorial losses that the Empire suffered as a consequence of the invasions of barbarian peoples, and that affected border territories where the cult was deeply rooted. Competition from Christianity, supported by Constantine, stole adherents from Mithraism. It must be taken into account that Mithraism excluded women, who did have the right to participate in Christian worship. Christianity displaced Mithraism during the IV century, until it became the only official religion of the Empire with Theodosius (379-395). There were some attempts to revitalize the cult of Mithras by Julian the Apostate (361-363) and the usurper Eugenius (392-394), but they were not very successful. Mithraism was formally prohibited from the year 391, although its clandestine practice probably continued for some decades.

Mithraism survived well into the V century in parts of the Alps and came back to life, tenacious but ephemerally, in the eastern regions of the Empire, where it had originated. His dualistic concepts played an important role in the development of Manichaeism, a religion that would prove another tough competitor for Christians.

Similarities with modern religions

Recent archaeological and historical studies have been showing that during pre-Christian times there existed in Egypt, regions of central Asia and the Mediterranean various religious currents with a core of members forming secret societies practicing rites in which symbologies based on the positions of the constellations, the planets, the sun and the moon. Some focused on the sun, others on some arrangement of the constellations, others focused on planets, etc. It is also possible that such ancient secret societies had a common root in those who studied and recorded the movement of the stars. They provided many of the allegories that are still used in modern open and closed religions, and even in non-religious institutions such as Freemasonry.

Similarities with Christianity

Morphologically, Christianity is a religion interwoven with mysteries, a character that has faded today due to the influence of medieval Christianity, but which was very accentuated in Christian antiquity.

In antiquity, in Christianity, the truths that pertained to the faith should not be divulged without precautions and participation in the ceremonies was reserved exclusively for the initiated. Although this issue has not yet been fully clarified, according to M. G. Hocquard, we know that only baptismal illumination began in the Christian mysteries that were thus kept in reserve, inaccessible, without being entirely secret.

Between 1913 and 1914, French priest, father, excommunicated Catholic theologian, philosopher and historian, Alfred Loisy, professor at the Collège de France, published his studies on the origin of Christianity in the Revue d'histoire et de Littérature religieuses.

In 1919, he published them in book format under the name The Pagan Mysteries and the Christian Mystery. The first edition went out of print quickly and had to be reprinted after Loisy reviewed and corrected it. In her book, Loisy gave an in-depth and detailed discussion of the testimony up to that time concerning the pagan mystery religions and their influence on the historical origins of Christianity.

These issues had already been raised by R. Reitzenstein in his book Die hellenistischen Mysterierreligionen (Leipzig, Teubner, 1820) and the issue had been discussed at the Congress on the History of Religions held in Leyden. in September 1912.

The hypothesis that Loisy formulates is that in its early days Christianity was a plan of salvation analogous to the pagan mystery cults, against which it competed for a long time to finally manage to defeat them.

The first Christian thinkers were Hellenizing Jews who lived in a pagan world, which is why their first theories have a Jewish theoretical basis tinged with pagan rituals. He considers that Christianity is more or less an adaptation of the essential elements of the pagan mysteries to the Jewish monotheism of those centuries. The inner work of the religious consciousness is prepared and conditioned by a previous religious tradition, not the product of absolutely independent religious experiences that would have all their explanation in themselves.

Similarities to Christianity, according to Loisy:

• Mithraism had features of deep moral symbolism;

• It was a totally closed cult, brotherhood, which in that it recalls Christianity of the first centuries, with its exclusive groupings and its entirely secret cult;

• the secret of mythraism was not faith but rites. Sacrifice rituals and sacrifice myths as in Christianity (Christ delivered to death to erase the sins of men);

• the confraternities of Mithra admitted only men and not women who did not participate in the functions of the cult;

• the kings honored Mithra, took him as a testimony of their oaths and invoked him in battles;

• the Christian trinity (unlike the one god of Judaism) resembles the trinity of the mythical polytheistic cults (Father Zeus-Ormazd, Mitra and Bull);

• Zeus-Ormazd (the Greek Zeus who is the Persian Ormazd) was the supreme Father God, but Mitra was the true object of religion. The supreme degree of God was that of Father, whose dignity corresponded to that of Mithra in heaven;

• the young god was beautiful, courageous, pure and taught an austere morality which he practiced himself;

• the idea of salvation: the Christian savior resembles the saving gods of mystery, Mitra was a saving god;

• the myth of the sacrifice of the bull (symbolical sacrifice during the rite) at the hands of Mithra was aimed at the redemption and immortality of the adepts. On the sacrifice of the bull (representing Mithra) rested the balance of the world and the salvation of men;

• the ritual banquet of the faithful of Mitra had similarities with the Christian Eucharist. Sometimes real bulls were probably sacrificed but no bull meat was eaten, the sacred drink (according to some was water and according to others it was wine) that represented the blood of the bull was the substance of the mystical and divine bull that was Mitra. It was consumed (symbolized in the sacred drink) together with the bread offering during the dinner. The substance of the divine bull was in the bread of the dinner of the initiates as the substance of Christ will be in the food of the blessed;

• the intent of the rite was the same: the soldier consecrated himself to Mithra, as the Christian to Christ;

• the cult of Mithra knew the week with consecration of the seven days to the seven planetary divinities but unlike the Jews sanctified the day of the Sun, on Sunday, and not on Saturday

• the priest was an initiate of the higher degree, a Father; the attributes of the pater —the highest level of initiation into mythraism—was the frigid hat, the rod and the ring, very similar to the mitre, the staff and the ring of the Christian bishops.

• Mitra also baptized his believers and promised the atonement of sins for the effect of the bath. Only in this cult was the baptism of the imposition of a sign on the forehead, as in the Christian Church.

• The day of birth of the sun was celebrated by the mythraics on December 25.

Places to visit

• The city of Mérida (Spain), where you can visit the Casa del Mitreo and the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, which exhibits a sculpture of a mitreo.
• The museum of Dieburg (Germany), exhibits findings of a mitreo, including the ceramic pieces used in the liturgy.
• The museum of Hanau, Germany, shows the reconstruction of a mitreo.
• The University of Newcastle Museum exhibits the objects found in the three archaeological sites along the Adriano Wall, and recreates a mitreo.
• The Basilica of Saint Clement, in Rome, has a very well preserved mitreo.
• The city of Martigny (old Octodurus), in the Swiss Alps, shows a reconstructed mitreo. [1]
• The Archaeological Museum of the city of Cabra, where there is a reproduction of a mitreo, and the sculpture of the centuryII Mitra from Cabra.
• Ostia Antica, port of Rome, where remains of 17 mitreos have been found; one of them presents substantial findings.
• The Cincinnati Art Museum exhibits a relief of a Rome mitreo that represents Mitra killing the bull.
• The Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Córdoba (Spain) exposes the sculpture of Mithras tauróctonos found in the Villa del Mitra, in Cabra, Cordoba.
• The archaeological site of Fuente Álamo in Puente Genil (Córdoba), where you can visit the remains of a mitreo in the context of a rural villa.
• The Lapidarium of the Brukenthal Museum of Sibiu (Romania), exhibits a reconstructed mitreo with some of the unearthed artifacts in Apulum (Alba Iulia).
• The mitreo appeared in front of the cathedral, Museo Universitario A Domus do Mitreo de Lugo (Spain).