Lord and Saviour -- Mithras!

[Gooders1002]

I found this on YouTube and I thing I prefer Mithraism to Christianity.
What do you think?

[Justtristo]

I tell you, that you have not been saved, unless you been washed in the blood of the bull

[Minimalist]

In the Rome series on HBO one of the worst mistakes they made was the scene were "Atia" is bathed in the blood of the bull. Women were barred from Mithraic rites. Also, the Mithraic cult had not caught on in Rome during the first century BC - although they certainly knew about it - it was in the first century AD that Mithraism morphed into Sol Invictus.

[downbeatplumb]

However wasn't she nude, that kinda made up for the error.

[Minimalist]

Yeah - she was a hot number.

[Justtristo]

In the Rome series on HBO one of the worst mistakes they made was the scene were "Atia" is bathed in the blood of the bull. Women were barred from Mithraic rites. Also, the Mithraic cult had not caught on in Rome during the first century BC - although they certainly knew about it - it was in the first century AD that Mithraism morphed into Sol Invictus.

Actually she was being initiated into the cult of Cybele not that of Mithras.

[Minimalist]

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.

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.

[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.

[Reforged]

I tell you, that you have not been saved, unless you been washed in the blood of the bull

Way ahead of ya. I didn't even know it was a religious ceremony at the time.
I was just having fun.