Mithraism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A religious belief system centered around a deity associated with light, which emphasizes salvation through knowledge and moral conduct, and was practiced mainly in the Roman Empire
2. This ancient religion included rituals, such as the initiation and a communal meal, focusing on a savior figure linked to cosmic battle and renewal
3. Followers of this faith revered the figure of Mithras, often celebrating its doctrines in underground temples, marked by elaborate symbolism related to mysticism and dualism

Etymology: Franz Cumont, a Belgian scholar of ancient religion, coined the French term "mithriacisme" in 1899 as shorthand for the "mystères de Mithra," the mystery cults devoted to the god Mithras. Cumont believed that the cult was essentially "Roman Mazdaism," a Western form of the ancient Iranian faith of Zoroastrianism, and he treated the Latin name Mithras and the Avestan name Mithra as one and the same god. That assumption shaped how the name was handled in French, where the Latin vocative form "Mithra" was carried over as the standard name. English took the word in 1903 as a translation of Cumont's French coinage, so the English term is a modern scholarly label rather than something ancient worshippers would have used. The name itself traces back to the Indo-Iranian god of contracts and covenants, whose Avestan form is "Mithra," but the religion bearing the name was a Roman phenomenon that flourished from roughly the first to fourth centuries CE.