caa a22 4500 388041358 CHVBK 20180307125022.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199811 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/300807 doi S0075435800044130 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/300807 Beck Roger Erindale College, University of Toronto The Mysteries of Mithras: A New Account of their Genesis [Elektronische Daten] [Roger Beck] In 1896 Franz Cumont published, as the second volume of his Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, the dossier of documents on the basis of which he was to render, three years later, the first truly historical account of the transformation of Mithra-worship from a branch of Iranian Mazdaism to a Roman mystery cult. This transformative process, as he envisaged it, was long and evolutionary. He used a geological metaphor to describe its stages, as theology and practice were passed down the ages and across the lands from Iran to Rome: Le fond de cette religion, sa couche inférieure et primordiale, est la foi de l'ancien Iran, d'où elle tire son origine. Au-dessus de ce substratum mazdéen, s'est déposé en Babylonie un sédiment épais de doctrines sémitiques, puis en Asie Mineure les croyances locales y ont ajouté quelques alluvions. Enfin, une végétation touffue d'idées helléniques a grandi sur ce sol fertile, et dérobe en partie à nos recherches sa véritable nature. Central to Cumont's scenario was Anatolia and the Mazdean diaspora that survived (and flourished) there after the fall of the Achaemenian empire. It was there during the Hellenistic Age that ‘Mithraism received approximately its definitive form', although Cumont hesitated to pinpoint the precise time and area. Copyright ©Roger Beck 1998. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Journal of Roman Studies Cambridge University Press 88(1998-11), 115-128 0075-4358 88<115 1998 88 JRS https://doi.org/10.2307/300807 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/300807 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Beck Roger Erindale College, University of Toronto NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Roman Studies Cambridge University Press 88(1998-11), 115-128 0075-4358 88<115 1998 88 JRS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge