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playfultree Profile
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Legend of Mithra


http://englishatheist.org/oamithras.shtml

I found this very interesting was wondering if anyone else had ever heard of Mithra.

Son of the Sun God, his mother was a virgin, he was born December 25, died to save mankind.
predates Christianity.



---
Love and Light

tree



May your journey be full of happiness and blessings
11/8/2006, 6:21 pm Link to this post Send Email to playfultree   Send PM to playfultree Yahoo
 
Firlefanz Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


Yes, it was quite wide-spread in Roman times. Christians managed to basically eradicate it.

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- Firlefanz

Reading: "The Golem's Eye" by J. Stroud
Writing: The Nine Tomes of Magic - NaNo novel

Mystical Adventures
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raptorsidhe Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


Mithra was especially a soldiers' god. Christianity, as you can see from the details, just absorbed it like it has so many previous religions around the world. It's called syncretism. The Church didn't want any competition, so they killed and absorbed, and came out mostly on top, which was the plan.

Do more research, it's fascinating.

Research aside: Mary Stewart's fiction books about Arthur feature Mithra/s pretty prominently. She's quite a good writer. Hers was one of my first "arthur" books.

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running around like a crazy person in the great plains
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de Corbin Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


Yes - I don't actually know the legend of Mithra (I'm going to check out the link when I get a moment), but Mithra worship was the glue that held the Roman Legions together.

Also, the Mary Stewart books are EXCELLENT. I read them first when I was a teenager, and I've read them many times since. I enjoy them every time.

They win the "Corbin Seal of Approval" emoticon

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Lindafisk Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


I remember reading about that last year and thought it was very interesting.
I have never, ever like mythology ( I am so weird) but to read about Mithras being so similar to the Christian Jesus was eye opening to me.
11/17/2008, 3:37 am Link to this post Send Email to Lindafisk   Send PM to Lindafisk
 
raptorsidhe Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


OK, if you really want to get into some heavy reading, check out Joseph Campbell (he's all about mythology). (Truthfully, he's a difficult read; get the cliff notes or something.)

But the basic thing he points out is that every culture needs a savior, and it needs several other characters (he calls them archetypes) in its culture to form a kind of basic cultural web on which we build the rest of our lives and beliefs.

Jesus, to his way of thinking, is one of many (many!) heroes who die and rise again across many many cultures. As you read on, different gods of various pantheons bear a striking resemblance to Jesus, some more than others.

John Barleycorn=Jesus
Mithras=Jesus
etc. etc.

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running around like a crazy person in the great plains
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Saijen SilverWolf Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


Just something to gnaw on....

The Christian Jesus was NOT born in winter.
He was born while Mary and Joseph were on their way to 'be counted'.....the Census. That happened earlier in the year, Springtime. And, if you read the account properly, Jesus was close to a year old before the Wise Men (Magi) finally found him. He was not in the stable, as a newborn. My Mother and I have actually discussed this, and she's a die-hard Christian...she's the one that pointed a lot of this out.
Oh...and, in the winter, shepherds didn't (and still don't) keep their flocks out in the fields, they were corraled closer to the family's home to keep a closer eye on them since food was at a premium in the winter, to humans and to animal preditors.

Things that make you go....HMMMMM and scratch your noggin! emoticon

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Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~

~~*~~ .~~*~~
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de Corbin Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra



raptorsidhe wrote:
OK, if you really want to get into some heavy reading, check out Joseph Campbell (he's all about mythology). (Truthfully, he's a difficult read; get the cliff notes or something.)




Campbell is one of my favorite myth people. it sounds like you're talking about "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" where he draws parallels between mythic and legendary heroes from different cultures.

George Lucus was a big fan of Campbell's and he based the Star Wars series on Campbell's ideas, which might explain why that group of films had such a huge impact on the popular imagination. The old stories never die, they just change their form.

There is an excellent series of filmed interviews with Campbell, conducted by Bill Moyers, and finaced by Lucus. If you ever get a chance to see them, they're well worth the time. Campbell talks a lot about myths, and why the meaning they contain is still important to us today. He also explains some of the mythic symbolism used in Star Wars.


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Terreson Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


Corbin, Campbell is a big time favorite of mine as well. What a synthesizing genius he was. Probably you're familiar with his four volume "The Masks of God." I read it well over ten years ago and I still reference it. Campbell was somehow able to "get inside" all the world's religions, from Orphism, to Shinto, to Hindu, to Animism, to the religions of the Levant, to Goddess worship, to... What an engaging read, huh?

The work's biggest gift, for me at least, is how it shows in detail that, in spite of the Christianization of the West (what Campbell calls an artificial graft that never wholly took), that in spite of this a Mystical tradition kept alive. Through Orphism, through the Gnostics, through various "heretical" sects, even through the Troubador poets. Second big gift is how he shows that for thousands of years in the cradle of Civilization, in fact, God was Goddess. Now you got me excited. Wish I could discover Campbell for the first time again.

As for the originally Persian Mithraism, its central passion was the castration and sacrfice of Mithra's best loved bull. It was on the order of his father, Armudz (mspelled?). In this way the world is created. You can see how Roman soldiers would be drawn to it. Someone has mentioned the extent to which Christianity borrowed from Mithraism. It was how the religion got absorbed. But I don't think anyone has mentioned that Mithraism was explicitly anti-feminine. Its priesthood consisted of celibate men only.

So, Tree, if you aren't familiar with it already see what you can find on the religion of Orphism. It too was a main contender with Christianity, predated it by a good 6 to 5 hundred years, and actually kept active in eastern Europe well into the fifth C AD. Had I lived then I just might have been an Orphic, with its emphasis on vegetative rebirth and renewal transormed spiritually.

Tere
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pookshollow Profile
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Re: Legend of Mithra


Christmas is in December because the early church felt obliged to take over and change all of the old Pagan festivals - in this case, Yule or Saturnalia.

Of course, the shepherds weren't out watching their flocks in the middle of winter - it would be in the spring, when the sheep were lambing. Don't try and tell that to some Christians though - every word in the bible is true! Mm-hmm. It was written over how many hundreds of years, in how many different languages and translated how many times?

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Half Caper Farm
Saanens, Boers, Nigerian Dwarfs
Harlequin and Lionhead Rabbits
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