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Sunday, December 24, 2006

Mithras, the original december 25th x-mas baby



Mithras, the story went, had been born of a virgin as the son of the Sun God to live the life of a mortal, and to relief the sins of mankind.

sounds familiar?

His worshippers drank wine that symbolized his blood and ate bread that symbolized his flesh.

and there's more,

Romans celebrated the birth feast of Mithras on December 25, ordered to do so by Emperor Aurelian in 274. Christian texts from 325 note that the birthday of Jesus had come to be observed on that same day, and the Roman Catholic Church has in modern times acknowledged that the December 25 Christmas quite likely derived from Mithraic practice.

The image shown here is that of a sculpted relief from Rome, depicting the central image of Mithraism - Mithras slaying a bull. This is accompanied by a number of figures that probably relate to Mithraic ritual and theology, including the torch-bearers on each side. A figure in the top left corner with a radiate crown represents the sun, and alludes to the relationship of Mithras with the cult of the Unconquered Sun [Sol Invictus]

The mythology of Jezus Christus seems to be mixed with that of Mithras, a proto Indo-European god-hero.

more Mithras images here :
images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Mithras&btnG=Search+Images

5 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas, maurits!

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  2. Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia Slawek, and also for Marta

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  3. Very interesting story Maurits
    the church has taken over many rituals and traditions

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  4. The christians surely did Roel...
    It's nice to look up Mithras in Wikipedia or Google

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  5. Interesting to see this is my #4 most popular post recently. Must be te season.

    Great info too!

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