The wound motif

The wound motif of the mythological victim assumes many forms, ranging from the violently horrific portrayals of castration and dismemberment, as suffered by Osiris, to more subtle symbolic forms of death, such as induced sleep and the curse of blindness, both inflicted upon the Cyclops Polyphemus. Occasionally the mythological victim will enter the realm of death directly in a form of underworld/otherworld or oceanic journey, like Odysseus, where the dividing line between death and life – as in the motif of the sleeping god – tends to become blurred. This state between death and life is also evident in the motif of the maimed god, who remains alive, yet perpetually suffers from an incurable wound, as in the case of the grail/fisher King from Arthurian romance.

Typically, the fate of the mythological victim is bound up in some form of physical injury. The three most prominent wound motifs in this category, are dismemberment (Osiris, Zagreus, Purusha, Orpheus, Pangu, Ymir, Avalokiteshvara), castration (Shiva, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Izanagi, Ouranos), and an injury to the foot (Bran, seed of the woman ‘Genesis 3:15′, Philoctetes, Centaur Cheiron, Centaur Pholus, Talos, Krishna, Diarmaid, Achilles, Ra), specifically to the heel.

Lunar beasts (part three)

The Mysteries of Mithras

Those initiated into the mysteries of Mithras achieved cosmic release by way of the revolving planets, which appear in Mithraic Iconography, each planet (Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Moon, and Sun) according to Celsus (Origen: Against Celcus 6:22), corresponding with a ladder of seven celestial gateways, surmounted by an eighth gateway, most likely transcendent of the celestial realm. The so-called Mithras Liturgy mentions that the pathway of the visible gods (i.e: the planets), is illuminated by the disc of the sun, the emblem of the indestructible god and gateway to the realm of the gods beyond (545-625). According to Jerome (Letter ‘to Laeta’ 107:2), there were eight stages of initiation (raven, bridegroom, soldier, lion, Perseus, sun, Crab, and father), presumably corresponding with the eight gateways.

In antiquity, numerous writers claim that the mysteries of Mithras took place within a cave and the god himself was born from a rock. Mithraic temples, called Mithraea (known collectively as Mithraeum), were windowless underground structures, evidently imitative of natural caves, and particularly of the mythological cave that enclosed the cosmos. In certain Mithraea, pumex stone was used to imitate the natural appearance of a cave, stars were painted on the ceiling, and the use of artificial light to replicate the heavenly bodies have all served to create the illusion of the celestial realm, according to Mithraic cosmology.

Statues depict Mithras birth, fully grown, from a rock, sometimes enclosed by a coiled serpent, reminiscent of the Orphic creation myth of the birth of the double-sexed being Phanes (Meaning ‘light’, also known as Protogonus ‘firstborn’, among other names), hatched from a serpent entwined cosmic egg. The rock-born motif appears to represent a paradoxical double truth, that Mithras birth within the cosmos and the cosmic creation itself were simultaneous events.

Also associated with the Mithraic cult was the statue of a lion-headed figure (leontocephaline), whose body was entwined by a spiraling serpent. This statue, I believe, represents both the lunar-temporal reality, corresponding with the revolving (serpentine) planetary path leading to cosmic release, and the solar-eternal reality, corresponding with the eighth gate mentioned by Celcus, as the indestructible lion’s head. The serpent also corresponds with the image of the Ouroboros that encircles the world, that in Greek mythology was Oceanus, who himself appears frequently in Mithraic iconography.

The central mystery involved Mithras slaying a bull within a cosmic cave. Leading up to this image of cosmic sacrifice is a sequence of iconic images of Mithras capturing and wrestling the bull. The bull slaying scene itself, known as the Taruoctony, depicts Mithras with his left knee pressed down upon the beast’s arched back, while With his left hand the god pulls back the bull’s head by the nostrils, and cuts the creature’s throat with a knife. The posture of the bull is reminiscent of the waxing crescent moon, while the god himself (the eternal god born within the temporal realm), is like the rising sun.

Other creatures accompany the sacrifice, including a crab and scorpion attacking the bull’s genitals (castration motif), and a dog and serpent attacking the bull’s bleeding throat. To the left and right of the bull slaying scene stand the twin torch bearers, Cautes and Cautopates, dressed Persian style like Mithras, with Phrygian caps. Above Cautes, whose torch points upwards (towards the realm of life) is an image of sol, the sun, who is sometimes riding an ascending chariot, while above Cautopates, whose torch points downwards (towards the realm of death), is Luna, goddess of the moon, sometimes riding a descending chariot drawn by bulls. Luna is also often depicted wearing a lunar headdress reminiscent of bull horns, and it is surely no coincidence that Mithras pulls back the head of the bull, as if transfixed and staring directly towards the moon, while the god himself looks towards the sun.

In various iconic representations, both Mithras and Sol are shown together, and Mithras himself was called Deus Sol Invictus. In one scene Mithras and Sol are sitting together partaking in a meal, presumably of bull flesh. In another scene Sol kneels before Mithras, and it seems apparent that the sun derives it’s power from Mithras himself.

The combined lunar-solar aspects of the god, represented in the leontocephaline, are distinct in the Taruoctony, and there is no other evidence that Mithras himself was ever thought to be both the lunar bull who is slain, as well as the solar god who slays. We find a similar distinction in the Zoroastrian creation myth (see part one). However, in the ancient lore of the mythological victim the god was clearly both.

Lunar beasts (part two)

The Bull Dionysus

Dionysus — accompanied by his army of bacchic revellers — was accredited as the universal distributor of his own worship and the knowledge of the vine (The ambrosial plant). Like Noah, he was the inventor of wine, and like Soma, he himself was the ambrosial drink poured out, everywhere releasing mankind from suffering. He was originally depicted as a bearded man, sometimes wearing a fawn or leopard-skin, and often carrying a wine cup (kantharos). From the 5th Century B.C onwards he primarily took the form of an effeminate youth.

In Euripides’ Bacchae, the god is invoked by the chorus to manifest himself as a bull and multi-headed serpent, both reflecting the god’s temporal aspect, as well as a fire breathing lion, representing his eternal all-consuming nature.

To demonstrate the rampant bull-ness of Dionysus, I need only to quote a paragraph from The Golden Bough:

…he is spoken of as “cow-born,” “bull,” “bull-shaped,” “bull-faced,” “bull-browed,” “bull-horned,” “horn-bearing,” “two-horned,” “horned.” He was believed to appear, at least occasionally, as a bull. His images were often, as at Cyzicus, made in bull shape, or with bull horns; and he was painted with horns. Types of the horned Dionysus are found amongst the surviving monuments of antiquity. On one statuette he appears clad in a bull’s hide, the head, horns, and hoofs hanging down behind. Again, he is represented as a child with clusters of grapes round his brow, and a calf’s head, with sprouting horns, attached to the back of his head. On a red-figured vase the god is portrayed as a calf-headed child seated on a woman’s lap. The people of Cynaetha held a festival of Dionysus in winter, when men, who had greased their bodies with oil for the occasion, used to pick out a bull from the herd and carry it to the sanctuary of the god. Dionysus was supposed to inspire their choice of the particular bull, which probably represented the deity himself; for at his festivals he was believed to appear in bull form. The women of Elis hailed him as a bull, and prayed him to come with his bull’s foot. They sang, “Come hither, Dionysus, to thy holy temple by the sea; come with the Graces to thy temple, rushing with thy bull’s foot, O goodly bull, O goodly bull!” The Bacchanals of Thrace wore horns in imitation of their god. According to the myth, it was in the shape of a bull that he was torn to pieces by the Titans… (James Frazer: The Golden Bough, Ch. 43 Dionysus)

In one of many magnificent mosaics from the House of Masks in Delos, a youthful Dionysus rides on the back of a leopard (another solar beast), holding up a libation dish*, deliberately at an angle, identifying it with the new moon cup of rebirth.

An Attic vase from the 5th Century B.C (below), portrays the god (or rather an effigy of the god) hanging from a vertical post. Branches of ivy sprout from his body, a circular wreath hangs from his belt, and before him stand two large vases upon a table. He is flanked by four female attendants. On the left, one holds a flaming torch pointing downwards towards the realm of death, whilst to the right of the god — hanging, as it were, in liminal space — another holds a torch upwards towards the realm of life, corresponding with the waning and waxing moons. Dionysus was known as Dithyrambos, ‘he of the double-door’, further identifying the god with the old and new moons.

Dionysus was also said to of married Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, who helped Theseus navigate the labyrinth and slay the half-man half-bull Minotaur.

Footnote

* It’s possible that Dionysus is holding up a tambourine, rather than a libation dish. Either way the new moon symbolism is apparent.