The Mithraic Mysteries was once the predominant religious practice in Rome, and some archeological remains of this pre-Christian religion still survive…
Photo by Getty Images
Before Constantine converted to Christianity and changed Europe for ever, the most worshipped figure in Rome was Mithra, a divinity of Persian origin about whom little history remains. By the time his cult had risen in Greece, however, he was chiefly known for his “tauroctony” (or “bull-killing”, to use the modern vernacular). This is what he is doing here in Ostia Antica, an archeological site southwest of Rome. How this habit relates to his being the Guardian of Cattle is obscure, but then the ways of the gods are not our own…