Mitanni

MITANNI. - A state in upper Mesopotamia between approximately 1500 and 1365 B.C. which, especially under its king Saušatar (ca. 1450), dominated the cities of Arrapha and Nuzu (v.) east of the Tigris, and also Assyria, as far as the kingdom of Alalah (Tell el-'Aṭāneh) near the Orontes in the west, and probably as far as the Mediterranean. Its capital was Waššukkani, which is probably to be located in the upper region of the Ḥabur river.

Tresor dòu felibrige (1878-86), indispensable for knowledge of the linguistic material of modern Provence.

The name M. is above all of a political character. Other names are synonymous with it: Hanigalbat, which is older, is rather of geographic origin; Naharin, a name also of geographic origin and explicable as an originally dual form (but cf. Revue biblique, 57 [1950], p. 448): it was used by the Egyptians (naharin) and by the Semites of the west (naḥrima of el-'Amārnah, nahḍrajim of the Bible); Hurri, a name much discussed in the formula "king of Hurri," as if it were meant to indicate a kingdom distinct from M.: but it is more probable, as E. Meyer already believed (Geschichte des Altertums, II, 1, Stuttgart-Berlin 1928, p. 372), that, being of ethnic origin, it was used when the people of M. wished to distinguish themselves from foreigners. According to the different circumstances, the use of these names varied.

Various cuneiform documents make known the following kings of M. with approximate dates opposite the contemporary pharaohs:

Egypt (Dynasty XVIII)
Tuthmosis I ca. 1525

Ḥatšepsut 1490

Tuthmosis III 1469-1435

Amenophis II 1435-1414

Tuthmosis IV ca. 1414-1406

Amenophis III ca. 1406-1370

Amenophis IV ca. 1370-Suttarna III A son, Matiwaza ca. 1365 killed Duš.

As is known from a new inscription (S. Smith, The statue of Idri-mi, London 1949), Barattarna was quite powerful, having as his vassal Idrimi, the king of Alalah. Of Saušatar we have spoken above. His three successors each gave a daughter in marriage respectively to the pharaohs Tuthmosis IV, Amenophis III and IV, which indicates the good relations that existed between the two kingdoms. Suttarna II and Dušratta still dominated Assyria. But the most serious danger came from the northwest on the part of the Hittites who, under Suppiluliumas and after the killing of Dušratta, finally succeeded in undoing the kingdom of M., reducing Matiwaza to the condition of a vassal east of the Euphrates. With the death of this one, the history of M. as a great power closes forever.

The social and ethnic structure of M. is today fairly well known. M. was a semi-feudal state, as is well known from the title marjannu which indicates the social rank of the nobles, who served in time of war mounted on the chariot, and from the adoption contracts of Nuzu, which were formulated to disguise the sale of land held by the State. Then, although composed ethnically of many peoples, M. was above all a mixture of

(by courtesy of Massimo Pellice)

MISURATA, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of - Cathedral.

Hurrians (v.) and Indo-Aryans. The Hurrians, widely diffused, were related to the Horites of the Bible, and their language, neither Semitic nor Indo-European, as it appears, was precisely that used in the kingdom of M. The Indo-Aryans then, although being in the minority, as results from the onomastics, nonetheless formed the ruling class: thus the names of the kings of M., referred to above, as well as those of other chiefs in the kingdom, are of Indo-Aryan character. The predominance of the Indo-Aryans is perhaps explained by their greater skill in the use of the horse and of the means of war.

MITHRA and MITHRAISM

I. MITHRA

He is an Indo-Iranian divinity, invoked as protector of contracts, according to the meaning of his name. In the Vedic years he is connected with Varuna, god of the sky, and in the Avesta he is found as the associate of Ahura Mazda of whom he is the eye. Mithra is a god of light, who grants fertility to the world and helps his followers in the struggle against the principle of evil.

After the conquest of Babylonia, astronomical and astrological theories, with speculations about the planets and the zodiac, penetrated into Mithraism and Mithra, from god of light, became a solar god and was identified with Samaš.

Mithra entered Rome (67 B.C.) with the prisoners of Cilicia, captured by Pompey (Plutarch, Vita Pompeii, 24). His diffusion increased under the Flavians and more under the Antonines and the Severans. With Aurelian the cult of the Sun became official in the Empire and was identified with that of Mithra. Frequent are the inscriptions of that period with the expression Sol invictus Mithras, deus invictus Mithras et Sol socius; the emperor Diocletian in the dedicatory epigraph of Carnuntum indicates him even as fautor imperii sui (CIL, III, 4413) and even Mithras invictus Deus sol omnipotens (Notizie degli Scavi, 1909, p. 84); in the mithraeum under the Barberini garden there are three scenes of Mithra with Helios who in the mithraeum under S. Prisca is represented at a banquet. Traces of his cult are found especially in the maritime cities, along the trade routes, the great rivers and the places where Roman garrisons were stationed, because the most active propagandists of his cult were slaves and soldiers, often of eastern origin. Mithraea in Rome were under the Capitoline, near S. Clemente, under the Baths of Caracalla, under the Palazzo dei Musei di Roma, formerly Pantanella, near S. Maria in Cosmedin, under S. Prisca, under the Barberini garden at the Quattro Fontane, etc. In Italy the most notable mithraeum is the one found at S. Maria di Capua Vetere with the fresco of the sacrifice of Mithra (A. Minto, Scoperta di una cripta mitriaca a S. Maria di Capua Vetere, in Notizie degli Scavi, 1924, p. 523 ff.). Then in the Danubian provinces, in Germany and Gaul; less frequent in Spain, Britain and Pannonia. Greece presents no traces of the cult except at Patras, while it penetrated into Dacia, Moesia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Armenia as far as Doura Europos in Mesopotamia.

II. DOCTRINE

The archaeological monuments are the most important for the reconstruction of the doctrine, while written sources are lacking. The head of the divine hierarchy of Mithraism is Zervan-Akarana (Infinite Time), represented with a human body wrapped in the coils of a serpent, winged and with the head of a lion. In the coils of the serpent the signs of the zodiac are sometimes represented; in his hand he holds a scepter, or keys, or the thunderbolt. This lion-headed monster is identified with Cronus-Saturn and with Destiny (Heimarmene). Zervan's successor is Jupiter (Ahura Mazda), from whose union with Juno the other divinities are born. Against his kingdom of light is set the dark kingdom of evil, with Ahriman and his wicked demons. Between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman stands Mithra (Plutarch, De Is. et Osir., 45-47; cf. Pletho, Oracula magica Zoroastris, in C. Alexandre, Traité des lois, Paris 1858, p. 279 ff.). In the struggle between the two principles the god will be victorious and will save humanity.

III. LEGEND

The Mithraic bas-reliefs depict the story of Mithra, which in its main outlines can be reconstructed as follows. Mithra is born from the rock, and covers himself with the leaves of a tree. A flood follows and then drought, but Mithra saves men by making water spring from a rock. Obeying an order, he goes hunting a bull that first eludes him, but is then captured and dragged by its legs into a cave (transitus) where Mithra slits its throat with a knife (tauroctony). From the bull's blood spring ears of grain, from its seed plants and animals, a production vainly hindered by the bite of the scorpion. A pact between Mithra and the Sun follows; the two sit together at a banquet, then together ascend in the solar chariot toward the sky.

IV. THE MYSTERY

The Mithraic initiation was secret and preceded by an oath not to reveal the secret of the rite. The frescoes of the sanctuary of Capua (A. Minto, in Not. Scavi, 1924, p. 523) depict the initiate with his eyes blindfolded and his wrists bound by cords which are cut with a sword by the mystagogue, acting as "liberator" (Pseudo Augustine, Quaest. Vet. et Novi Test.: PL 34, 2214).

Having become a brother of the Mithraic community, the initiate can ascend the seven grades of the hierarchy: raven (corax), nymphus (nymphus), soldier (miles), lion (leo), Persian (perses), courier of the Sun (heliodromus), father (pater). The various Mithraic grades in hierarchical order are listed by St. Jerome in the letter to Laeta (Ep. 107, 2 in CSEL, 55, 292). In the mithraeum discovered beneath the basilica of St. Prisca in Rome the adherents invested with these grades are represented under the protection of a planet (A. Ferrua, Il mitreo sotto la chiesa di S. Prisca, in Bull. della commiss. archeol. comunale, 68 [1940], pp. 59-66). Of these, some belong to the category of servants (ὑπερησόντες), others to that of participants (μετέχοντες). In the graffiti of Dura Europos preparatory grades are also mentioned. The head of the Mithraic sanctuary is called poter patrum.

V. CULT

The mithraea are underground constructions that reproduce the appearance of a cave (spelaeum, antrum), a symbol of the sky. They present a central space bounded at the sides by two podia on which the initiates take their places. At the back of the sanctuary is the scene of the tauroctony and the altar. The various scenes relating to the god serve as an example to the faithful. In the ritual agape, meat and wine were used and sacred formulas were pronounced. On either side of the tauroctonous Mithras appear two torchbearers, one holding the torch raised, the other inverted. Together with Mithras they are a symbol of the sun at dawn, at noon and at sunset, in the sky of the day; and of spring, summer and autumn in the sky of the year. The sacred hymns sung in these various solar phases have been lost. Above all the birth of the god (Natalis Imsicki) was commemorated on 25 December. Excavations carried out at Dieburg, Neuheim and Dura Europos have yielded figurations of the solar Mithras riding out to hunt.

VI. MITHRAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

The Christian apologists fought M. as their principal enemy and regarded the Mithraic ritual as a diabolical imitation of Christianity (Tertullian, De praescr. haer., 40), not only because of the lustrations that recalled Baptism, because of its doctrine, because of the belief in the resurrection of the dead and in the final judgment presided over by Mithra as savior, but above all because of the ritual banquet. After the official recognition of Christianity in the 4th century the struggle between the two religions was definitively decided in favor of Christianity. With the victory of Theodosius over Eugenius the cult was suppressed in 394 in Rome, while in the provinces it resisted longer, especially in the East. - See pl. LXXVI.

Martino J. Vermaseren