Author: Roger Pearse

Finding interesting things at the Christies web-site

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Few of us will be aware that there are good quality images of past sale objects on the website of Christie’s, the fine art dealers.  But an accident took me there this evening, and I found half a dozen objects relating to Mithras, which had been sold over the last 20 years.  There were photographs of most of these.  I rather doubt that any of them appear in the catalogue of Mithraic monuments and objects, the CIMRM, although of course it is very hard to tell.

Naturally I have added these to my own modest catalogue online of monuments and objects.  I hope that Christie’s will not mind.

One item in particular caught my eye; a statuette supposedly of Mithras-Sabazios.  Sabazios is usually identified with Jupiter or Dionysus.  What I do not see, however, is why we should suppose this to be Mithras?  Merely wearing a phrygian cap is not enough … is it?

There were no such items in the CIMRM, which is telling, perhaps.  I have included it in my own catalogue, but with misgivings.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I did a little more on the Mithras pages.  I was able to identify one of the images that I found online and create a CIMRM page for it.  The section in CIMRM on material from Alba Iulia is not very easy to work with, and I was reduced to looking through the limited number of illustrations in the same volume, just to find out which relief I was looking at.  There must have been several Mithraea at Alba Iulia, judging from the number of reliefs of Mithras killing the bull; yet none are mentioned in the CIMRM.  One was discovered in 2010.  There must have been others.

Still, it is impossible for a single amateur like myself to do more than scratch the surface of Mithraic archaeology.  I console myself by thinking that what I do is at least useful, as far as it goes.

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Eusebius on the Psalms – some old quotations on the sabbath

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A couple of years ago I discussed a quotation from Eusebius’ Commentary on the Psalms.  An incoming link alerts me to a discussion which gives a longer quotation, and a source for it.

The source given is Moses Stuart’s Commentary on the Apocalypse (vol. 2, p.9, p.40; Andover: Allen, Morrill, Wardwell, 1845).  But a quick look at the 1850 reprint suggests that something is awry.  A better source is Harmon Kingsbury, The Sabbath, 1840, p.218 f. As Eusebius’ Commentary on the Psalms does not exist in English, it seems useful to repeat what is said:

Professor Stuart says:

“The important testimony of Eusebius, (fl. 320,) in the time of Constantine has been unaccountably overlooked by all the patristical investigators whom I have yet been able to consult. It is contained in his commentary on the Psalms which is printed in Montfaucon’s Collectio Nova Patrum and some of it is exceedingly to our purpose and withal very explicit.

“In commenting on Ps. xxi. 30 (xxii. 29 in our English version) he says ‘On each day of our Savior’s resurrection [i.e. every first day of the week] which is called Lord’s day, we may see those who partake of the consecrated food and that body [of Christ] which has a saving efficacy after the eating of it bowing down to him.’ pp. 85, 86.

“Again on Ps. xlv. 6 (xlvi. 5) he says ‘I think that he [the Psalmist] describes the morning assemblies in which we are accustomed to convene throughout the world.’ p.195

“On Psalm lviii. 17 (lix. 16) he says ‘By this is prophetically signified the service which is performed very early and every morning of the resurrection day [i.e. the first day of the week throughout the whole world].’ p.272

“But by far the most important passage of all remains to be adduced. It is in his commentary on Ps. xci (xcii) which is entitled ‘A psalm or song for the Sabbath day’. He begins his commentary by stating that the patriarchs had not the legal Jewish Sabbath but still, ‘given to the contemplation of divine things and meditating day and night upon the divine word, they spent holy Sabbaths which were acceptable to God.’

“Then observing that the Psalm before him has reference to a Sabbath he refers it to the Lord’s day and says that ‘it exhorts to those things which are to be done on resurrection day.’ He then states the precept respecting the Sabbath as addressed originally to the Jews and that they often violated it. After which he thus proceeds: ‘Wherefore as they rejected it [the sabbatical command], the Word [Christ] by the New Covenant translated and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the morning light and gave us the symbol of true rest, viz. the saving Lord’s day, the first [day] of the light in which the Savior of the world, after all his labors among men, obtained the victory over death and passed the portals of heaven, having achieved a work superior to the six days creation.’ … ‘On this day which is the first day of light and of the true Sun, we assemble after an interval of six days and celebrate holy and spiritual Sabbaths, even all nations redeemed by him throughout the world AND do those things according to the spiritual law which were decreed for the priests to do on the Sabbath, for we make spiritual offerings and sacrifices which are called sacrifices of praise and rejoicing, we make incense of a good odor to ascend as it is said, Let my prayer come up before thee as incense. Yea we also present the shew bread, reviving the remembrance of our salvation, the blood of sprinkling, which is of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world and which purifies our souls. … Moreover we are diligent to do zealously on that day the things enjoined in this Psalm, by word and work making confession to the Lord and singing in the name of the Most High. In the morning also with the first rising of our light we proclaim the mercy of God toward us also his truth, by night exhibiting a sober and chaste demeanor; and all things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath [Jewish seventh day], these we have transferred to the Lord’s day as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has a precedence and is first in rank and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. For on that day, in making the world, God said Let there be light and there was light; and on the same day the Sun of righteousness arose upon our souls. Wherefore it is delivered to us [paradedotai, it is handed down by tradition] that we should meet together on this day and it is ordered that we should do those things announced in this Psalm.’

“After some interval he speaks again of the title to the Psalm and says that it does not so much respect the Jewish Sabbath for ‘it signifies the Lord’s day and the resurrection day as we have proved in other places.’ ‘This Scripture teaches that we are to spend the Lord’s day in leisure for religious exercises (twn qeiwn a)skse)wn) and in cessation and vacation from all bodily and mortal works which the Scripture calls Sabbath and rest.’

It is useful to have this material.  I wonder what else in the way of patristic material lies buried in elderly English bible commentaries?

How I love these forum arguments! I have gained so much from them over the years.  How sad it is that, today, it is simply impossible for me to even find the discussions online, since it became impossible to search only for forums online.

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A Mithraic brooch in the Ashmolean in Oxford

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Last Saturday I was in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, browsing idly the Roman exhibits.  Suddenly I realised that I was looking at a set of small finds, all of Empire-period deities; and I started looking much more closely to see if there was a representation of Mithras.  And so there was!

Sadly I had no camera with me.  All I had was the camera in my smartphone, which is nothing special.  Anyway I had a go, and, after several attempts, produced this.

I also photographed the card in the window.  I have found, looking for images online, that the presence of such a card in the collection of photos is really good.  So here is mine:

The reverse of the brooch was harder to see, but there was a pin sticking out to one side from the back, just as with a modern brooch.

So … not a wasted day, in any sense!

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Last week and this I have been staying in two different hotels in neither of which it is easy to sleep.  How great the noise is, in our society!  It does make it difficult to do anything else.

Last night there were a couple of comments on the post in which I ask whether there is any actual ancient evidence that Pythagoras went to India.  I ended up looking up and posting here all the passages in which it is mentioned that Pythagoras studied under the Brahmins; but none confirm the story of actually going to India. 

The general quality of the passages is low; the whole story looks legendary.  Fragments of Alexander Polyhistor, at second and third hand in Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica; a statement in Apuleius’ Florida; a statement in the largely legendary Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus … this is not the stuff of good history.

I’m still working on the Mithras pages.  I’ve created a page which lists all the inscriptions which mention a “pater patrum” of Mithras.  It probably refers to a senior priest in a Mithraeum, but we don’t know for sure.  Last night I also came across and read most of an article by Richard Gordon in the Blackwell Companion to Roman Religion, which gave a very nice overview of Mithraic studies.

A couple of translation projects are going forward as well. 

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Egypt and Archduke Rainer

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I wonder how many of us know the name of Archduke Rainer?  Very few, I would imagine.  Yet he played an important part in the history of Egyptology. 

Archduke Rainer (1827-1913) was an Austrian nobleman, some time Prime Minister of Austria.  He is notable for his collection of Egyptological items.  In particular his collection of papyri is supposedly the largest known.  He donated it to the national collection in Vienna in 1899.  It includes Arabic papyri, and shows the process of transition in documents in Egypt from papyrus to paper.[1]

In 1877 thousands of papyri were discovered in the Fayyum, at the site of ancient Arsinoe.  There were also substantial discoveries at Heracleopolis and Hermopolis, near by.  These items were recognised by those who found them as precious, and so worth preserving, and went on to the art market.[2]  They came into the hands of a Cairo dealer named Theodor Graf (1840-1903), who sold them in lots, first to the Louvre and the Berlin Museum and then, from 1883-4 on, to Archduke Rainer. Graf also owned some of the Fayyum portraits.[3]

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  1. [1]S. Adshead, China in World History, p.97: “The Archduke Rainer collection illustrates the change from papyrus to paper in Egypt. All thirty-six manuscripts from 719 to 815 are papyrus, between 816 and 912, there are ninety-six papyrus to twenty-four paper, one document apologising …“↩
  2. [2]John Muir, Life and Letters in the Ancient Greek World, 2008, p.25.↩
  3. [3]Georg Ebers, Theodor Graf, The Hellenic portraits from the Fayum at present in the collection of Herr Graf, 1893, p.4-5.↩

About to die? “I’d rather not know”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have attended no death-beds, nor am I familiar with mortal illness, so this post might seem a little impertinent.  But I get the impression that the dying are frequently deceived as to the seriousness of their condition; that the nurses and the doctors and the relatives all shy away from telling a dying man that he has little time left.  Many go into the night unawares, perhaps.

By contrast I believe that it was the custom longer ago for a dying man’s relatives to summon the priest or minister, so that the man might prepare himself for death.

Why do modern people hide from the dying that they must soon perish?

I wonder whether, quite simply, it is that these modern people have no belief in any life after death?  That both the patient and the staff share a certainty that there is nothing beyond your last breath? 

For if so, if the dying are without hope, the conduct described makes sense.  The knowledge that you are dying is, I believe, distressing.  The last moments on earth may be eased by empty words and promises of recovery.  And so this is what happens.  In this way the medical staff perform what we might call a ritual, predicated on their religious belief that there is no resurrection, no judgement, no hope of eternal life in bliss, no fear of damnation.  We may legitimately use the terminology “religious belief”, for what else are these but the very centre of most religion?

If, on the other hand, we believe that the dying may well have a future, that they need to prepare to meet their maker, to face judgement, and so forth, then it likewise makes sense to advise the doomed one that he must prepare for that journey.  He must repent of his sins and prepare his soul for a journey known but never experienced.  Here again the relatives and doctors perform a religious service, in prompting the patient and sending for those whose advice may make much difference in what is to follow very shortly.

In short the customs of our own day reflect the religion of our age.  If we do not share that religion, we would be well advised to ensure that we are better served when our time comes.

It is common for us to talk as if people do not act upon the beliefs by which they live.  But in fact people really do act upon their beliefs.  They may not always be conscious of their presuppositions, but an unconscious choice is a choice all the same.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I spent some time this evening writing a page on the Mithraeum discovered at Lugo (ancient “Lucus Augusti” in Spain) in 2003.  Found a few images online, mostly of the dig, but also of a rather splendid granite altar, about 3 feet tall.

It was slightly frustrated to discover that the publication of the find is in the “Journal of Roman Archaeology”, which is not in JSTOR and kindly offers to sell you access at $1 per page for a PDF.  It’s a bit depressing to see that sort of greediness still lingering — as if the taxpayer had not already funded every bit of content in the journal, and funded every single subscription ever bought. 

A corrrespondent has encouraged me to go and see some of the Mithraea.  When the weather improves, perhaps I will.  It might be a nice focus for some little day-trips.

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Manuscript images at the British Library are “public domain”?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

There is an interesting post at the British Library manuscripts blog, Images in the public domain.

Just a reminder that images from our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts are now available under a Public Domain mark. This means that they are available for download and reuse, on condition that certain basic principles are observed: (1) please respect the creators; (2) please credit the source of the material; (3) please share knowledge where possible; (4) please consider the efforts of the British Library in preserving and making such works available, should they be used for commercial or other for-profit purposes.

Now that is extremely interesting.  It is also very laudable — well done!  That is precisely what should be the case.

This seems to apply only to the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts material, tho.  That stuff is, really, not of much interest to me, as I am interested in texts.  But it is the sort of material that might have possible commercial value, and this makes the generous gesture all the more laudable.  On the link to the “public domain mark” are the following requests for those so using the material:

  • Please respect the creators – ensure traditional cultural expressions and all ethical concerns in the use of the material are considered, and any information relating to the creator is clear and accurate. Please note, any adaptations made to an item should not be attributed to the original creator and should not be derogatory to the originating cultures or communities.
  • Please credit the source of the material – providing a link back to the image on the British Library’s website will encourage others to explore and use the collections.
  • Please share knowledge where possible – please annotate, tag and share derivative works with others as well as the Library wherever possible.
  • Support the Public Domain – users of public domain works are asked to support the efforts of the Library to care for, preserve, digitise and make public domain works available. This support could include monetary contributions or work in kind, particularly when the work is being used for commercial or other for-profit purposes.
  • Please preserve all public domain marks and notices attached to the works – this will notify other users that the images are free from copyright restrictions and encourage greater use of the collection.

I think that is more than fair.  In particular supporting the public domain is precisely what this blog exists to do.  Again … well done!

This is the sort of thing that every national collection should be doing.  By making images available in a way that promotes reuse and the creation of derivative works, they enrich the culture of today.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Last night I spent hunched over a hot scanner, transforming a text book from paper into a PDF.  My first reason for doing so is that it is simply more accessible in that format.  The library charges $8 to borrow it, and lends it to me for a fortnight.  That isn’t long enough to do more than look briefly at it.  The other reason, simply, is that in PDF form it is searchable and far more useful.  It also doesn’t occupy floor-space in these ridiculously small modern houses.  It was 400 pages, so it took a while.

While so doing, I continued to read about the fetiales priests, and their spokesman, the pater patratus.  It’s really very clear that the priests existed to ensure that, when Rome went to war, the gods were onside, or at least not on the side of the other guy.  So these chaps did the rituals that were necessary, delivered warnings and threats, and generally acted as backup-men for the senate.  Divine retribution was something that, in the Roman mind, should always happen to the other guy.  They took the possibility seriously, and acted to prevent it.  The priests were, in other words, a state responsibility.  Each of the early Latin cities did the same and had the same kinds of people, under the same names even.  Even in the time of Claudius, a representative of Lanuvium, concluding a treaty with Rome, held the same title when he performed the role and is recorded under it.  Nothing suggests that it was a permanent post; nor, really, that it was not.  But there were 20 fetiales, a delegation consisted of 4; and presumably, therefore, they chose one of their number to do the role for that trip.  It would be pretty unlikely that one poor chap had to go on every embassy, which is the other alternative.

So where does this leave us, when we find a follower of Mithras with that title?  Does it relate to the cult in any way?  Or is it merely a role that he held for other reasons, and so is mentioned on his inscription?

We shall consider it.

Meanwhile another project of mine is going forward.  Eusebius’ Commentary on Luke is being translated for the first time.  The first two columns from the Patrologia Graeca edition hit my inbox today.  The work may or may not be Eusebian, but it is certainly interesting!

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