The Mythras liturgy

10— MEYER The Mithras Liturgy 2oa G Marvin Meyer The Mithras Liturgy, as the present text usually is entitled, is one of the most significant and fascinating of the texts of the ancient mystery religions. For students of Mediterranean religions, including Judaism and Christianity, the Mithras Liturgy sheds important light on Mithraism, magic, and religion in Greco-Roman antiquity and late antiquity, and its syncretistic liturgy for the ecstatic ascent of the soul may be compared with descriptions of spiritual ascent in apocalyptic, gnostic, and mystical texts. The Mithras Liturgy promises that an encounter with the divine will result in divine revelation, and it offers the initiate the opportunity to be “born again” (metagennasthai, palinginesthai) and experience immortalization (apathanatismos). As a Mithraic text, the Mithras Liturgy is of value for the study of early Christianity, which in general resembles Mithraism in a number of respects—enough to make Christian apologists scramble to invent creative theological explanations to account for the similarities. Devotees of Mithras typically enter sanctuaries of Mithras, called Mithraea and designed as caves, and participate in various purifications, initiatory rites, and sacred meals. According to Tertullian (On the Crown 15; On Baptism 5; Prescription against Heretics 40), Mithraic initiates experience ordeals and tests of valor, are washed or baptized with water, and are sealed on their foreheads. According to Justin Martyr (First Apology 66.4), Mithraic initiates join in a sacred meal in which they take bread and a cup of water (or a mixed cup of wine and water, the bread and the cup apparently are symbolic of the body and blood of a sacrificed bull) and utter appropriate formulas. Justin adds that through this sacred meal the Mithraic initiates are simply imitating the Christian Eucharist, and the devil, that diabolical counterfeiter, along with his demons, is making them do it. Justin seemingly can find no other way that is theologically acceptable to him to explain the clear similarities between Mithraism and early Christianity. The Mithras Liturgy reflects the world of Mithraism, but precisely how it relates to other expressions of the mysteries of Mithras is unclear. Apparent Mithraic motifs are abundant in the Mithras Liturgy, and they may include the

reference to “the great god Helios Mithras” (line 482), the mention of the eagle (line 484), the invocation of the elements (lines 487-537), the depiction of firebreathing Aion (lines 587-616), and the portraits of Helios the sun god (lines 635-37) and the highest god (lines 693-704). In particular, the representation of the highest god recalls typical portraits of Mithras from Mithraic monuments. He is presented as youthful, crowned with a golden crown, wearing trousers THE MITHRAS LITURGY 181 rising gods and goddesses in the mystery religions has been debated among scholars for a long time. Some scholars are willing to admit that the story of the death of Jesus may resemble the stories of the deaths of savior figures in the mystery religions, but they also may insist that the deities in the mysteries do not rise as Jesus is said to have risen. Like Jesus, the deities in the mysteries indeed die, but after death they stay where they belong, that is, dead. Such an argument may (anaxyrides), holding a bull's shoulder in his right hand, and projecting astral power: lightning comes from his eyes and stars from his body. With the leg of the well be motivated by Christian apologetic concerns designed to affirm the uniqueness of Christianity and the place of the resurrection of Christ and Christians bull, interpreted astronomically, the Mithraic god, or Mithras, turns the sphere of within Christianity, In fact, the mystery religions and their deities and initiates provide ample eviback (antistrephousa),” Mithras may be responsible for the astronomical precesdence for the proclamation of life and the rising of new life in the mysteries. Besides what has already been cited from Mithraism, a few additional examples may heaven around, and if the text suggests that Mithras “moves heaven and turns it sion of the equinoxes, the progressive change in the earth’s orientation in space caused by a wobble in the earth’s rotation (so Ulansey). This cosmological role of Mithras in the Mithras Liturgy corresponds well with recent scholarly interpretations of Mithras as a cosmic savior, with astronomical abilities and powers (Beck, Ulansey). Mithras’s cosmic role also calls to mind the Child of Humanity (or, the “Son of Man”) coming with the clouds of heaven in apocalyptic literature (Daniel be noted. In the Eleusinian mysteries, Kore, daughter of Demeter, returns mythically from her yearly sojourn in Hades to the land of the living, after the manner of the grain in the field (cf. John 12:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:36-37). In the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, Osiris lives on in the realm of death as the ruler of the underworld, and the “grain Osiris” demonstrates the growth or rebirth of grain 13:26; 14:62; Matthew 24:30; 26:64; Luke 21:27). Likewise, Mithras endowed and of Osiris. When Lucius is initiated into the mysteries of Isis, according to the Metamorphoses of Apuleius of Madauros, he undergoes a nocturnal death experience by passing through the realm of Osiris and appearing the next morning, with astral power is reminiscent of the Child of Humanity in Revelation 1: the Child of Humanity is brilliant to look at, his face is like the sun and his eyes are sons contribution on Apuleius in this volume). Elsewhere Apuleius also refers to 7:13-14;, 2 Esdras 13:1-3; Revelation 1:7) and the Synoptic Gospels (Mark like flames of fire, and he has stars in his hand and a double-edged sword in his mouth. Although Mithras holds the leg of the bull in the Mithras Liturgy, there is no scene of Mithras tauroktonos, Mithras slaying the bull, in the text. Elsewhere such “a scene (along with the scene of the sacred meal shared by Mithras and Helios or Sol) is central to Mithraic iconography and theology. Like other expressions of the ancient mystery religions, such manifestations of Mithraism proclaim salvific interest in the dying—and rising—of the divine. In Mithraism the death of the bull is a divine sacrifice, and archaeological monuments show heads of grain growing from the dying bull as an anticipation of new life. These themes also are found in the Latin inscriptions from the Mithraeum of Santa Prisca in Rome. One inscription refers to “one that is piously reborn (renatum) and created (creatum) by sweet things,” and another reads, “And you saved us after having shed the eternal blood.” These inscriptions resemble passages in the Gospel of John and other early Christian texts. In early Christianity, particularly in the New Testa_ ment Gospels’and the Letters of Paul, there is a similar preoccupation with Jesus dying and rising, and the proclamation of the crucified and risen savior has dominated much of Christian theological thinking over the centuries. Furthermore, in early Christianity and the mystery religions, these interests in dying and rising also are applied to human life; it is said that the dying and rising of the savior figures may be realized in the lives of the people who die and rise with them. Such a comparison of Jesus dying and rising in Christian texts with dying and dressed like the rising sun, to celebrate his initiation as a birthday (see Henderthe initiate as one reborn (renatus), as in the case of Lucius, who is brought back to human life from his asinine condition through the power of the goddess. Similarly, a late inscription (376 CE) states that a person who experiences the bath of blood in the taurobolium (ritual slaughter of a bull) or criobolium (ritual slaughter of a ram), sometimes a practice in the mysteries of the great mother Kybele and Attis, is “reborn for eternity” (in aeternum renatus). Attis himself provides at least an intimation of life after death, since his body does not decay, his hair keeps on growing, and his little finger continues to move. During a spring festival, the death of Attis is observed on the Day of Blood in a way that may be comparable to Good Friday observance in Christianity, and thereafter new life for Auis, and for the initiate, may be celebrated in the Hilaria, in a way that may be comparable to Easter celebrations. 2 Here in the Mithras Liturgy are echoes of these same concerns. At the conclusion of the liturgy for the ascent of the soul, the initiate professes (lines 718-23): O lord, though born again, I am passing away, though growing and having grown, | am dying, though born from a life-generating birth, l am passing on, released to death, as you have founded, as you have decreed and have established the mystery.

It is no wonder that Clement of Alexandria, in his Exhortation to the Greeks 12.120, proclaims that Christianity may be properly understood to be a mystery THE MITHRAS LITURGY 183 is adapted from Marvin Meyer, The “Mithras Liturgy,” and is used with the permission of the Society of Biblical Literature. The translation is revised for the present religion. He writes, “O truly sacred mysteries! O pure light! In the blaze of torches I have a vision of heaven and of God. 1 become holy by initiation. The publication, and insights from Hans Dieter Betz, The “Mithras Liturgy,” are incor- Lord reveals the mysteries.” These are true mysteries, Clement maintains; these its structure, and line numbers for every fifth line in the manuscript are included are Christian mysteries. for ease of reference. The Mithras Liturgy occupies lines 475-834 (or 820) of the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, Supplément grec 574) and hence assumes a prominent place as a magical text or text of ritual power. As such, the Mithras Liturgy contributes a great deal to the study of magic, miracle, and ritual in reliporated. Explanatory headings are added as an aid to understanding the text and THE MITHRAS LITURGY gions in antiquity and late antiquity, including Christianity, and the stories of Be gracious to me, O Providence and Psyche, as I write these mysteries handed miracles attributed to Jesus and others may profitably be studied with texts like the Mithras Liturgy at hand. In the Mithras Liturgy, the magical features include down, but <not> for profit. 1 request immortality for an only child, for an initiate of this our power. Moreover, O daughter, you must take *% the juices of descriptions of breathing techniques, recipes, rituals, amulets, and words of ritual herbs and spices, which will <be made known> to you at the end of my holy power (voces magicae). The words of ritual power can be onomatopoetic (PPP, making a popping sound, perhaps like thunder, and SSS, making a hissing sound), symbolic (AEEIOYO, reciting or chanting the seven Greek vowels in a series), or glossolalic (speaking in tongues, uttering the sounds of vowels or treatise. The great god Helios Mithras ordered this to be revealed to me by his archangel, so that I alone may ascend to heaven as an eagle *85 and behold the universe. other combinations of letters in ecstasy). In magical texts like the Mithras Liturgy, commonly there is a fascination with spells in other languages (cf. Mark 5:41). Some names and words of power in the Mithras Liturgy derive from languages that can be identified, for instance, Greek (PROPROPHEGGE, perhaps “primal brightener,” and .PSYCHÖIN] DEMOU PROCHO PROA—perhaps restore MACHARPHIÖIN in line 536 on the basis of the previous line); Egyptian (ARARMACHES, “Horus of the horizon,” and PHRE, “Re,” the sun god—perhaps restore PHRIE] in line 488); and Hebrew or another Semitic language (SEME’ SILAM, “eternal sun,” and IAO, a version of the tetragrammaton, the ineffable name of the Jewish God, which played a large role in a variety of magical texts and traditions). Sometimes the very letters of the words may be manipulated for the sake of power (PSINOTHER NOPSITHER THERNOPSI, permutations of the phrase “the son of god” in Egyptian, and IAO OAI AIO, permutations of the ineffable name of God). It is even possible that the last four letters of the name of power PEPPER PREPEMPIPI attempt to reproduce, visually, the four letters of the tetragrammaton in Hebrew. The Paris magical codex, part of the papyrological collection of Giovanni Anastasi, was acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1857. According to reports, it may have come from Thebes in southern Egypt. The codex has been dated to the . early fourth century CE, and Albrecht Dieterich has proposed that the Mithras Liturgy itself may originally have been composed in about 100-150 ce. The exact parameters of the text of the Mithras Liturgy remain somewhat uncertain, espe- LITURGICAL MYSTERY FOR THE ASCENT OF THE SOUL: STAGES OF ASCENT 1. The Four Elements This is the invocation of the ceremony: First origin of my origin, AEEIOYO, first beginning of my beginning, PPP SSS PHR{.], spirit of spirit, first of the spirit *° in me, MMM, fire given by god to my mixture of the mixtures in me, first of the fire in me, EU EIA FE, water of water, first of the water in me, OOO AAA EEE, earthy substance, first of the earthy substance in me, 495 YE YOE, the complete body of me, NN child of mother NN, formed by a noble arm and an incorruptible right hand in a world without light and radiant, soulless and soulful, YEI, AUI EUOIE. If it be your will, METERTA 5% PHOTH— METHARTHA PHERIE, elsewhere— TEREZATH, give me over to immortal birth and then to my underlying nature, so that, after the present need which is pressing me sorely, cially for the conclusion. Hans Dieter Betz has suggested that line 820, kai to hy- I may gaze upon the immortal 5% beginning with the immortal spirit, pomnéma echei, translated here as “And it has this text,” should be understood as the conclusion of the Mithras Liturgy and translated as follows: “{With this} the ANCHREPHRENESOUPHIRIGCH, with the immortal water, ERONOUI PARAKOUNETH, memorandum has [finally] reached its completion.” The translation given below

with the most steadfast air, EIOAË PSENABOTH, that I may be born again in thought, KRAOCHRAX R OIM ENARCHOMAI, 10 and the sacred spirit may breathe in me, NECHTHEN APOTOU NECHTHIN ARPI ETH, that I may wonder at the sacred fire, KYPHE, that 1 may gaze upon the unfathomable, awesome water of the dawn, NYO THESO ECHO OUCHIECHOA, and the vivilying 515 and encircling ether may hear me, THE MITHRAS LITURGY the disk of god, my father, and in similar fashion the so-called pipe, 550 the origin of the ministering wind. For you will see it hanging from the sun’s disk like a pipe. You will see the outflow of this object toward the regions westward, boundless as an east wind, if it is assigned to the regions of the east, and the other (the west wind), similarly, toward its own 7° regions. And you will see the gods staring intently at you and rushing at you. So at once put your right finger on your mouth and say, Silence! Silence! Silence! Symbol of the living, incorruptible god! 560 Guard me, silence, NECHTHEIR THANMELOU. ARNOMETHPH. Then make a long hissing sound, next make a popping sound, and say, For today I am about to behold, PROPROPHEGGE MORIOS PROPHYR PROPHEGGE NEMETHIRE ARPSENTEN PITETMI MEOY ENARTH PHYRKECHO PSYRIDARIO 56 TYRE PHILBA. with immortal eyes, 1, born mortal from mortal womb, transformed by tremendous power and an incorruptible right hand, 520 and with immortal spirit, the immortal Aion and master of the fiery diadems, 1, sanctified through holy consecrations, while there subsists within me, holy, for a short time, my human soul power, which I shall receive again °?° after the present bitter and relentless necessity pressing down upon me, me, NN child of mother NN, according to the immutable decree of god, EUE YIA EEI AO EIAU IYA IEO. Since I, born mortal, ??° cannot rise with the golden brightnesses of the immortal brilliance, OEY AEO EYA EOE YAE OIAE, stand; O perishable nature of mortals, and at once <receive> me safe and sound “ after the inexorable and pressing °° need. For I am the son PSYCHO[N] DEMOU PROCHO PROA, Lam MACHARPH[.]N MOU PROPSYCHON PROE. _ 2. The Lower Powers of the Air 185 Then you will see the gods looking graciously upon you and no longer rushing at you, but instead going about in their own order of affairs. When you see that the world above is clear ?7° and circling, and that none of the gods or angels is threatening you, expect to hear a great crash of thunder, so as to shock you. Then say again, Silence! Silence!—the prayer. l am a star, wandering about with you, shining from *7 the deep, OXY OXERTHEUTH. Immediately after you have said this, the sun’s disk will expand. After you have said the second prayer, where there is “Silence! Silence!” and what follows, make a hissing sound twice and a popping sound twice, and immediately you will see 78° many five-pronged stars coming from the disk and filling all the air. Then say again, Silence! Silence! When the disk is open, you will see the fireless circle, and the fiery doors shut tight. 585 3. Aion and His Powers At once close your eyes and recite the following prayer. The third prayer: Give ear to me, Draw in breath from the rays, drawing up three times as much as you can, and you will see yourself being lifted up and >#° ascending to the height, so that hearken to me, NN child of mother NN, you seem to be in midair. You will hear nothing either of humanity or of any other living thing, nor in that hour will you see anything of mortal affairs on earth, but rather you will see all immortal things. For in that day ?* and hour you will see the divine order of the skies: the presiding gods rising into heaven, and others setting. The course of the visible gods will appear through O fire-walker, PENTITEROUNI, O lord, you who have bound together with your breath the fiery bars of the fourfold °° root, light-maker—others: encloser— SEMESILAM,

Stand still and at once draw breath from the divine into yourself, while you look intently. When 630 your soul is restored, say, Come, lord, ARCHANDARA PHOTAZA PYRIPHOTA ZABYTHIX beautiful light, AZAI, Aion, ACHBA, 395 ETIMENMERO PHORATHEN ERIE PROTHRI PHORATHI. light-master, PEPPER PREPEMPIPI, fire-body, PHNOUENIOCH, When you have said this, the rays will turn toward you. Look into the center of them. When ®° you have done this, you will see a youthful god, beautiful in appearance, with fiery hair, in a white tunic and a scarlet cloak, and wearing a fiery crown. At once greet him with the fire greeting: light-giver, fire-sower, AREI EIKITA, fire-driver, GALLABALBA, light-forcer, AIO, _ fire-whirler, PYRICHIBOOSEIA, light-mover, SAN CHEROB, thunder-shaker, °° IE OE IOEIO, Greetings, O lord, great power, great might, °° king, greatest of gods, Helios, lord of heaven and earth, god of gods. Mighty is your breath, mighty is your strength, O lord. glory-light, BEEGENETE, light-increaser, SOUSINEPHI, If it be your will, announce me to the supreme god, fire-light-keeper, SOUSINEPHI ARENBARAZEI MARMARENTEU, the one who has conceived and made you: star-tamer: open for me, that a person, I, NN child of mother NN, 645 PROPROPHEGGE EMETHEIRE who was born from the mortal womb of NN and from semen, MORIOMOTYREPHILBA. Because, 605 on account of the pressing, bitter, inexorable necessity, Linvoke the immortal names, living and honored, which never pass into mortal nature who, since he has been born again from you today, has become immortal out of so many myriads in this hour according to the wish of god the exceedingly good, resolves to worship 550 you, and prays with all human power, that you may take along with you the horoscope of the day and hour today, and are not declared in articulate speech by human tongue or mortal speech 1° or mortal sound: EEO OËEO 100 OE EEO EEO OE EO 100 OEFE OEE OOE IE EO OO OF IEO OE OOE IEO OE IEEO EE 10 OE IOE OEO EOE OEÖ OIE OIE EO Ol II] EOE OYE which has the name THRAPSIARI MORIROK, that he may appear and give revelation during the good hours, E EIA AEA EEA 615 EEEE EEE EEE IEO EEO EOOEEO QEFEOE EEO EYO OE EIO EO OE OË EE 000 YIOE. Say all these things with fire and spirit, until completing the first utterance. Then, similarly, begin the second, until you complete the °° seven immortal gods of the universe. When you have said these things, you will hear thundering and shaking in the surrounding realm, and you likewise will feel yourself . Silence!—the prayer. Then open your eyes, and you will see the doors 62° open and the world of the gods within the doors, so that from the pleasure and joy of the sight your spirit runs ahead and ascends. 187 4. Helios, the Sun fire-breather, PSYRINPHEU, fire-feeler, LAO, light-breather, OAI, fire-pleaser, ELOUR, being agitated. Say again, THE MITHRAS LITURGY EORO RORE ORRI ORIOR ROR ROI 655 OR REORORI EOR EOR EOR EORE. After you have said these things, he will come to the celestial pole, and you will see him walking as if on a road. 5. The Seven Fates Look intently and make a long bellowing sound, like a horn, releasing all your ' breath and straining your sides. Kiss 660 the amulets and say, first to the right, Protect me, PROSYMERI. Alter saying this, you will see the doors thrown open and seven virgins coming from deep within, dressed in linen garments and with the faces of asps. They

are called the [ates 665 of heaven, and they wield golden wands. When you see them, greet them in this manner: THE MITHRAS LITURGY youthful, golden-haired, wearing a white tunic, a golden crown, and trousers, and holding in his right hand a golden 7% shoulder of a young bull. This is the Bear that moves heaven and turns it around, moving upward and downward in Greetings, O seven fates of heaven, noble and good virgins, accordance with the hour. Then you will see lightning bolts leaping from his eyes and stars from his body. At once 7 make a long bellowing sound, straining your belly, that you may excite the five senses. Bellow long until the conclusion, kiss the amulets again, and say, sacred ones and companions of MINIMIRROPHOR, most holy guardians of the four pillars.” Greetings to you, the first, CHREPSENTHAES. Greetings to you, the second, MENESCHEES. Greetings to you, the third, MECHRAN. MOKRIMO PHERIMO PHERERI, Greetings to you, the fourth, ARARMACHES. life of me, NN: Stay. Greetings to you, the fifth, ECHOMMIE. Greetings to you, the sixth, TICHNON DAES. Dwell in 7!° my soul. Greetings to you, the seventh, EROU ROMBRIES. 6. The Seven Pole Lords Do not abandon me, for one entreats you, ENTHO PHENEN THROPIOTH. Another seven gods also come forward, gods who have the faces of black bulls, Gaze upon god while bellowing long, and greet him in this manner: in linen 675 loincloths, and holding seven golden diadems. They are the socalled pole lords of heaven, whom you must greet in the same manner, 189 each of them with his own name: Greetings, O guardians of the pivot of the heavenly sphere, sacred and brave youths, who turn 680 at one command the revolving axis of the vault of heaven, who send out thunder and lightning and jolts of earthquakes and thunderbolts against the nations of impious people, but to me, who am pious and god-fearing, you send health and soundness of body °° and acuteness of hearing and seeing and calmness in the present good hours of this day, Greetings, O lord, master of the water. Greetings, O founder of the earth. Greetings, O ruler of the wind. O bright lightener, 745 PROPROPHEGGE EMETHIRI ARTENTEPI THETH MIMEO YENARO PHYRCHECHO PSERI DARIO PHRE PHRELBA. Give revelation, lord, concerning the matter of NN. O lord, though born again, 1 am passing away, though growing and having grown, 720 | am dying, though born from a life-generating birth, I am passing on, released to death, as you have founded, O my lords and powerfully ruling gods! as you have decreed and have established the mystery. Greetings to you, the first, AIERÖNTHI. lam PHEROURA MIOURI. ‘Greetings to you, the second, MERCHEIMEROS. Greetings to you, the third, ACHRICHIOUR. 690 Greetings to you, the fourth, MESARGILTO. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE USE OF THE MYSTERY Greetings to you, the fifth, CHICHROALITHO. After you have said these things, he will immediately respond with a revelation. 723 You will grow weak in soul and will not be in yourself when he an- Greetings to you, the seventh, EORASICHE. swers you. He speaks the oracle to you in verse, and after speaking he will de-' part. You remain silent, since you will be able to comprehend all these matters Greetings to you, the sixth, ERMICHTHATHOPS. 7. The Highest God, Mithras by yourself, for at a later time 730 you will remember infallibly the things spo- Now when they take their place, here and there, in order, look in the air and ken by the great god, even if the oracle contained myriads of verses. If you also wish to use a fellow initiate, so that he alone may hear with you the things spoken, let him remain pure together with you for <seven> 735 days you will see lightning bolts going down, lights flashing, °°? the earth shaking, and a god descending, a god immensely great, with a bright appearance,

and abstain from meat and the bath. Even if you are alone, and you undertak the things communicated by the god, you speak as though prophesying in ecstasy. And if you also wish to show him, judge whether he is completely worin the thy as a person. 740 Treat him as if in his place you were being judged g beginnin the prayer, first the him to whisper and zation, matter of immortali of which is “First origin of my origin, AEEIOYO.” Say the successive things as an initiate, over his 7*° head, in a soft voice, so that he may not hear, as you are anointing his face with the mystery. This immortalization takes place three times a year. If anyone, O child, after the teaching, wishes to disobey, then for him it will no longer 7° be in effect. INSTRUCTION FOR THE RITUAL [Scarab] Take a sun scarab that has twelve rays, and make it fall into a deep, turquoise cup‚ at the time when the moon is invisible. Put in together with it the seed of the fruit pulp of the lotus, 75° and after grinding it with honey, prepare a cake. At once you will see the scarab moving forward and eating, and when it has consumed the cake, it immediately dies. Pick it up and throw it into a glass vessel of excellent rose oil, as much as you wish. 760 Spread sacred sand ina pure manner and set the vessel on it, and say the formula over the vessel for seven days, while the sun is in midheaven: THE MITHRAS LITURGY 191 for three days before. Set out early in the morning toward the east, 785 lick off the leaf while you show it to the sun, and then the sun god will listen attentively to you. Begin to consecrate this at the divine new moon, in the Lion. This is the formula: 1 EE OO IAI. Lick it up so that you may be protected, and roll up the leaf 7% and throw it into the rose oil. Many times have I used the spell, and I have been truly amazed. The god said to me, Use the ointment no longer, but after casting it into the river, <you must> consult while wearing the great mystery 7°5 of the scarab revitalized through the twenty-five living birds, and consult once a month, at full moon, instead of three times a year. The Kentritis plant grows from the month of Pauni, in the regions of the 800 black earth, and is similar to the erect verbena. This is how to recognize it: When an ibis wing is dipped at its black tip and smeared with the juice, the feathers fall off when touched. After the lord 805 pointed this out, it was found in the Menelaitis region near Phalagry, at the river banks, near the Besas plant. It is of a single stem and reddish down to the root, and the leaves are rather crinkled and have fruit 819 like the tip of wild asparagus. It is similar to the socalled Talapes, like the wild beet. I have consecrated you, that your essence may be useful to me, NN alone, [Amulets] that you may prove useful to me 755 alone. The amulets require this procedure: Copy the right one onto the skin #5 of a black sheep, with myrrh ink, and after tying it with the sinews of the same animal, put it on. Copy the left one onto the skin of a white sheep, and use the same IE IA E EE OU EIA, For lam PHOR PHORA PHOS PHOTIZAAS— others: PHOR PHOR OPHOTHEIXAAS. On the seventh day pick up the scarab and bury it with myrrh and Mendesian wine and fine linen, and put it away in a flourishing bean field. 77° Then, after you have entertained and feasted together, put away, in a pure manner, the ointment for the immortalization. [Herbs] If you want to show this to someone else, take the juice of the herb called Kentritis, and smear it, along with rose oil, around the eyes of the one you wish, 775 and he will see so clearly that it will amaze you. I have not found a greater spell than this in the world. Ask the god for what you want, and he will give it to you. Presentation before the great god is like this. Obtain the above-mentioned herb 780 Kentritis, at the conjunction (of the sun and the moon) occurring in the Lion. Take the juice, mix it with honey and myrrh, and write on a leaf of the persea tree the eight-letter formula, mentioned below. Keep yourself pure procedure. The left one is very full of “PROSTHYMERL.” 820 And it has this text: “So speaking, he drove through the trench the single-hoofed horses” (Iliad 10.564). “And men gasping among grievous slaughters” (Iliad 10.521). “And they washed off their profuse sweat in the sea” (Iliad 10.572). “You will dare to lift up your mighty spear against Zeus” (Iliad 8.424), 825 Zeus went up to the mountain with a golden bullock and a silver dagger. Upon all he bestowed a share, only to Amara did he not give, but he said, Let go of what you have, and then you will receive, PSINOTHER NOPSITHER THERNOPSI, and so on, as you like.830 “So Ares suffered, when Otos and mighty Epialtes . . . him” (Iliad 5.385).

Spells Spell for restraining anger: “You will dare to lift up your mighty spear against Zeus” (Iliad 8.424). For friends: “Let... seize... , lest we become a source of joy for our enemies” (Iliad 10.193). Bibliography Beck, Roger. Planetary Gods and Planetary Orders in the Mysteries of Mithras. Etudes Préliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l'Empire Romain (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World) 109. Leiden: Brill, 1988. Betz, Hans Dieter. The “Mithras Liturgy”: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 18. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 2003. Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults. Carl Newell Jackson Lectures. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries. Translated by Richard Gordon. New York: Routledge, 2000. Dieterich, Albrecht. Eine Mithrasliturgie. Leipzig, Germany: Teubner, 1903. 2nd ed. Edited by Richard Wünsch. 1910. 3rd ed. Edited by Otto Weinreich. 1923. Reprint, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966. Merkelbach, Reinhold, and Maria Totti, eds. Abrasax: Ausgewählte Papyri religiösen und magis“ chen Inhalts. Abhandlungen der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sonderreihe Papyrologica Coloniensia 17.1-4. 4 vols. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1990-96, particularly Band 3, Zwei griechisch-ägyptische Weihezeremonien (Die Leidener Weltschöpfung; Die Pschai-Aion-Liturgie). . Metzger, Bruce M. “A Classified Bibliography of the Graeco-Roman Mystery Religions, 1924-1973, with a Supplement, 1974-77.” Pages 1259-1423 in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase. Band 11.17.3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1984. Meyer, Marvin. The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. . The “Mithras Liturgy.” Society of Biblical Literature Texts and Translations 10. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976. . “PGM 1V.475-829.” Pages 48-54 in The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells. 2nd ed. Edited by Hans Dieter Betz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Smith, Jonathan Z. Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity. Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion 14. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Ulansey, David. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.