Expressing religious ideas through Visual Art : a new interpretation of the third symbol of the Mithraic grade miles on the floor mosaic from the Felicissimus Mithraeum in Ostia
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The Roman Cult of Mithras is an example of a religion which expressed its central ideas not by text but through visual art. This paper deals with a single instance of this strategy and exemplifies its use in the Mithraic art. In the first part of the paper, a new interpretation of the third symbol of the Mithraic grade Miles on the floor mosaic from the mithraeum Felicissimus will be presented. The object which this symbol represents has been, according to our opinion, wrongly identified in the previous scholarship and a new interpretation is urgently required. In the second part of the paper, after we have argued that the new interpretation we are proposing conforms better with other Mithraic evidence, possible meanings of this object in Mithraic religious ideology will be explored and evaluated. |