Lord and Saviour -- Mithras!

[Justtristo]

I don't recall them making that claim....but the image of the bull being slaughtered above and blood cascading down seems like a mithraic rite... not that such details ever slow down the dramatic license of film-makers.

The scene in question had the priestess and Atia requesting protection from the Great Mother, which would mean Cybele (because she was regarded as the Great Mother).

IIRC there was an amusing wrinkle on the whole Cybele story because the cult was actually intentionally imported into Rome towards the end of the Second Punic War for divine "help" against Carthage. The story goes that whoever gave the report on the Cybelline cult forgot ( or ignored ) the fact that the priests had to be castrated which was a non-starter for Roman citizens ( and me too.) Someone eventually did come up with the idea of using a bull's balls as a substitute.

Tough on the bull, though.

Your comments suddenly reminded me of a question I posed to Robert M Price once. I hypothesis was that some early Christians castrated themselves for various reasons, including emulating the practice of the Cybele cult. Because Matthew 19:12 is a strange version, where Jesus was saying that those who made themselves into enunchs for the kingdom of god's sake was alright. That is a direct violation of Torah, which forbids Jewish men from castrating themselves and bans them from entering into the congregation of the lord.

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IIRC there was an amusing wrinkle on the whole Cybele story because the cult was actually intentionally imported into Rome towards the end of the Second Punic War for divine "help" against Carthage. The story goes that whoever gave the report on the Cybelline cult forgot ( or ignored ) the fact that the priests had to be castrated which was a non-starter for Roman citizens ( and me too.)

The priests would have been people who were either slaves or free non-citizens.