Table of Contents

Why Mithras?, 1. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, Key Themes, 2. Tempora Solis: The Life of a Religion, 3. Those who join hands: the Mithraists, 4. "That Mede there, Mithras": the Prehistory of a Religion, 5. Born of a Rock: The early life of Mithras, 6. You have saved us by pouring fourth the eternal blood: the Tauroctony and Beyond, 7. The Guardian at the Gate: the Enveloped God, 8. A Well-omened, holy place: the Persian Cave, 9. Persist through the clouds: Ritual, 10. Credo: descending immortal, immortal to rise again, Mithras Afterwards, 11. Through a glass darkly: Mithras after Rome

About the Author

Dr Andrew Fear is a Lecturer in Classics at the University of Manchester. Educated at Lancaster RGS and New College, Oxford, he has a long-standing interest in ancient religion and the Western Esoteric Tradition. He has produced translations of the late classical Christian historian Orosius and also Visigothic hagiography.