Archaeologia Adriatica, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2007.
Original scientific paper
Mithras Sol
Željko Miletić
; University of Zadar, Department of Archaeology
Abstract
The worship of Sol and solar cults was deeply rooted in Rome. In the late Republican and early Imperial periods the popularity of solar cults was minimal, except during the reigns of those emperors who were propagators of solar deities. Sol as a personal deity was important in the promotion of the imperial cult, as well as in proving divine origins, for the restoration of the mythic golden age, in confirmation of earthly governing under celestial patronage, and finally in apotheosis and deification. Heliolatry would decline with the removal of individual emperors. Imported Greek, Oriental, and Egyptian components from various religious, philosophical, and astrological sources influenced the development of the cult and iconography of Sol. Aurelian created a new supreme god from local, minor, and provincial deities, who played an important role in the Roman religion of the third and fourth centuries. The article emphasizes the diversely composed characters of the solar deities worshipped in Rome, which are compared with the Mithraic Sol at three levels: mythological, cosmogonical, and liturgical.
Keywords
Sol; Mithras; mythic feast; petrogenesis; bull sacrifice (tauroctonia); celestial maps; psyhopomp
Hrčak ID:
28650
URI
Publication date:
21.10.2007.
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