Andrew Fildes wrote:
> Now that's a load of bull,,,,
>
Winsor Crosby wrote:
> Well. That puts us on the horns of a dilemma.
You folks do know Mithras is killing a bull, not involving it in a
positive form of worship, right?
As it was a mystery religion, possibly only passing on the secrets
through oral transmission, essentially nothing is known directly about
beliefs and rituals. Lots of temples with sculptures and paintings, but
nothing to elucidate their meaning within the worshipers.
A truly fascinating (if one is bent that way) theory about the meaning
of the bull killing imagery that was at the head of every temple has
shown up since I last read about Mithras. Nice summary by the author
from his book here. <http://www.well.com/user/davidu/mithras.html>
The whole business of the effect of the precession of the equinoxes on
belief systems that used the movements of the heavens is interesting to
me. The ideas in *Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time
*by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend make a lot of sense to me.
Moose
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