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of a bull, the authority of Cumont was so strong that his curious ways of deriving Mithras from the
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iranic Mithra (for instance, recovering the bull from another iranic myth in which Ahriman, a devil
god, kills a bull and Mithra does not appear at all) was accepted up to 1970!
This Cumont dogma is a wonderful example of the risks to which we submit ourselves when
the authority of the giants (or perhaps supposed giants) is accepted outright.
In any way, finally in 1971 some persons started to bring the dogma to the court, and it became
immediately clear that Mithras studies had to be re-started from the very beginning and that the
natural point to start with was astronomy. 2
Since the main personages in the play are Mithras and the Bull, it is clear that the bull has to be
identified with Taurus but it is not clear with which constellation has Mithras to be identified. All
the astronomical interpretation which have been proposed since 1970 like e.g. heliacal rising of
Taurus - have had serious problem with the identification of Mithras. For instance, one could think
to Orion, but Orion is under, and not over, the Bull.
Fig. 8 The Mithras iconography.
Finally, the solution of the puzzle has been given by David Ulansey (Ulansey 1989).
Ulansey observed that over Taurus there is Perseus, a constellation identified with a frigian
warrior already in the 5 century BC. But why the Scorpion? If we send the sky back in time up to
the end of the Taurus era, about 2000 BC, we discover that the other equinoctial constellation was
Scorpio. The celestial equator crossed at that time Taurus, Canis Major, Hydra (i.e. a serpent)
Vessel, Crow and Scorpion (besides a small part of Orion s sword). It remains Lion, which however
was the summer solstice constellation at the same epoch. The grain ears from the tail of the Bull
give the association with spring equinox.
This is what concerns the interpretation of the Mithras cult: a God who is so strong to be able to
change the cosmic order of the motion of the sun with respect to the stars. A very convincing
interpretation. However, the interest for us here arises from the way in which Ulansey explains the
origin of the Mithras cult.
According lo Ulansey, what happened is (in brief) the following. In 128 BC Hipparchus discovers
precession. The discovery rapidly permeates and fits into the symbolic scheme of the stoic
philosophy school at Tarso. Since for stoic philosophers, natural forces where manifestations of
deities, it was natural for them to introduce a new god responsible for the new movement of the
2
Actually, already in 1869, the German scholar K. B. Stark noticed strong, clear connections of the iconography with
constellations. However Cumont went out to say, that although astronomy could admittedly have played a role in the
lower degrees of initiation, the main stream of the high degrees was the iranic tradition on the origin and the end of the
world.
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cosmos, a god so strong to be able to move the fixed stars. Since Perseus was already venerated at
Tarso, the identification followed naturally. Regarding the missing link with the pirates, which are
the first Mithras adepts historically documented, Ulansey remarks that they had contacts with
intellectuals and where used to the stars, being sailors.
I should say that I do strongly believe in Ulansey s interpretation of the Mithras cult but that I am
unable to believe in Ulansey s explanation for its origin.
The reason is very simple. Altough doing the best of my efforts, I cannot find even one example in
history in which a scientific discovery became a religion. It could eventually became a myth within
a religious framework, as in Hamlet s Mill viewpoint, but not the foundation of a cult of a new god.
There is also a technical reason for which I cannot believe in Ulansey s interpretation. Let us
suppose that a scientific discovery of a mechanism becomes a religion. A religion is usually
associated with eschatological thought: we aspect for future event, a future advent of a god, for
instance. Therefore, I would rather think that the new religion will be based on the end of the era
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