Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 119 Mithraism and the Cave of the Sun
"This place is the sun cave of the ancient Mithraism." Liang En recognized the statue and what it represented the first time he saw the statue.

The reason why Liang En was able to make this decision with such certainty is also very simple, because he found that the marble statue placed on the main seat of the cave was carved with the statue of Mithras slaughtering the bull.

This is a very beautifully carved and powerful statue: the god Mithras in the center of the statue straddles the back of a bull, with his left knee against the waist of the bull, while his right leg is tightly clamped The cow's rump, the right foot stepped on the cow's hind leg.

At the same time, Mithra clasped the nostrils of the bull with his left hand and pulled it up forcefully, forcing the bull to raise its head.The dagger in the right hand pierced deeply into the neck of the bull and killed the bull.

And around this wound, strings of wheat ears gushed out of the wound.It is used to embody the part of the Mithra God that the statue wants to express.

Next to the wound, a dog and a snake were licking the blood from the wound, while a scorpion crawled up behind the bull and used its pincers to grab the bull's balls.

Like the Christian crucifix, this statue of Mithra's bull-butchering is a central symbol of the religion.According to the research conclusions of modern archaeologists, the ears of wheat on the ox represent fertility, indicating that Mithras was a god of fertility.

Among other things, the white bull represents the moon and Mithras represents the sun.Then Mithras slaying the bull meant that the sun defeated the moon.

In the ancient Eryuan theological system, "sun-moon" corresponds to "life-death."Then Mithra's killing of the bull represents the transition from birth to death, while the bull's birth of grain represents the resurrection after death.

It is precisely because such statues can fully understand the teachings of Mithraism, so there may be nothing else in every sun hole used for Mithraism religious occasions, but there must be such a statue.

"That's right, it should be just like what you said." As an expert in the study of ancient Roman history, Professor Brown confirmed this almost at the same time he saw the statue. "And the cave at this location is also in line with the layout of the Sun Cave."

The reason why he was able to make such an inference is very simple, because Mithraism had spread throughout all the territories of ancient Rome.Therefore, temples were also distributed throughout the territory of the ancient Roman Empire, so there are too many examples for comparison.

These sun holes are distributed in such a vast space as far as the coast of the Black Sea in the east, the Scottish mountains in the north, the Sahara Desert in the south, and the Atlantic Ocean in the west.In the city of Rome alone, people have dug a total of 45 sun holes.

According to historical records, the belief of Mithraism appeared among the Aryans in Central Asia 4000 years ago.Then, with the migration of the Aryans, it spread eastward to India and southward to Persia.And developed many variants.

What's more interesting, traces of this religion can be found in Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Hinduism and Buddhism.At the same time, in the West, this belief was successively believed by the Hittite Empire, various Hellenistic kingdoms and Mediterranean pirates.

In the first century BC, Mithraism was introduced to the Roman Republic amidst civil wars.

As early as 67 BC, when General Pompey exterminated the Silesian pirates, he discovered that they were holding mysterious rituals to worship Mithras on Mount Olympus, and then this religion entered Rome.

As a country that believes in polytheism, Rome will rarely destroy the beliefs in this area after conquering a region. Instead, it will often incorporate the gods of this area into the Roman polytheism system.

Therefore, Mithraism also became popular in ancient Rome after that war, and even became one of the core religions of the Roman Empire for a time.

At the beginning, the spread of this religion was mainly concentrated among the lower class people, especially the barbarian slaves and mercenaries, because this religion was not restricted by the origin, race and customs of the believers.

Even back then, Mithraism deliberately confused itself with other religions, such as enshrining various gods that were popular at the time in temples, allowing believers who joined this religion to not need to give up their original beliefs.

Also because of this practice, compared with the worship of the Great Mother, the worship of Dionysus, or the worship of Isis in Egypt, which was popular in ancient Rome, this religion can be said to have stronger vitality, and its influence is not inferior to that of Christianity in later generations. .

An authoritative French scholar on early Christianity, Ernst Renan, once said, "If the growth of Christianity had been thwarted by fatal diseases, the whole world would be Mithraites today."

Even if this religion is destroyed by Christianity today, it still leaves deep traces in Christianity.For example, December 12, where Christmas is located, is actually the birthday of Mithras.

In addition, in Mithraism, the gods in Mithraism point the pot to let the water slowly pour out, eat bread and wine in the communion of the party to be reborn, and perform penance, etc., all of which can find similar content in Christianity.

However, it is also because of this practice of giving up the seriousness of the doctrine at any cost for the sake of preaching that it has caused huge problems in terms of the purity of the doctrine, the rigor of the church, and the strictness of the canon.

So after the 4th century, the competition of the Christian church caused Mithraism to lose the favor of the army and nobles, and then this loose sand, which relied on the ruler's religion, disappeared completely, leaving only the relics all over the Mediterranean region.

But even so, even if the time came to the 6th century AD, in many villages in Europe, the lower-class Christians would always bow and pray to the sun when the sun rose.

Since Mithraism was restricted to men, the religion quickly became the religion of the soldiers.Moreover, the doctrine of Mithra's resurrection from the dead is also very appetizing to these soldiers who are licking blood.

Therefore, this religion once filled the frontier areas of ancient Rome, and traces of this religion can be found no matter in Britain, the Rhine, the Danube or the Euphrates.

Considering that there is a fortress on the Antonine wall a few kilometers away, with a large number of garrisons, it is very reasonable that there is a Mithra sun hole here.

As for why this cave was built in the wilderness, it is because the Sun Cave itself tends to find hidden places for the sake of mystery.At least the ruins excavated now can show a clear tendency in this regard.

As everyone gradually entered the room, the cleaning work quickly started.It turned out that this temple is a high-standard temple, and the whole space is divided into three parts by two horizontal stone walls, just like the purpose of a Chinese character.

"This should be the servant's room." Looking at the empty space after entering the cave, Mr. Brown explained to Liang En in a low voice, "The room behind is a warehouse for storing necessary items for the ceremony."

"As for the room where we saw the statue is located in the innermost part of the entire cave, it is the main hall of the Sun Cave, where various religious ceremonies are held."

Following Professor Brown's introduction, Liang En walked down the road step by step to the depths of the cave.Soon, he realized that the first two rooms of the sun cave were empty and contained nothing.

(End of this chapter)