User:Antony Hakim

Another god worshiped at Sidon was the god Mithra. A Mithraeum existed at Sidon from the second century A.D. onward. Dark mysteries were celebrated in honor of the god in natural caves or in a subterranean crypt, transversed by a central passage. At the far end was the relief of Mithra slaying the bull accompanied by other sculptures. As Mithra was the god of heavenly light two torch bearers dressed in the same oriental garb are usually present. The cult of Mithra is of Persian origin. Myth recounts that one day Mithra encountered a bull passing in a mountain prairie. Seizing the animal by its horns, he mounted him and galloped away. The bull wearied and collapsed. Mithra then lifted him by his hind legs and hoisted them over his shoulders. Dragging his burden wiyh great effort Mithra reached his cave but encountered many painful odstacles on his way. This laborious passage to the cave became an allegory to human suffering. Eventually the bull managed to escape. Mithra set out with his dog in pursuit. Seizing it by the nostrils in one hanh, with the other he plunged a knife into the bull's neck. Then the miracle came about. From the body of the dying bull, there sprung all usefull and wholesome plantes, from his spinal marrow, wheat germinated and from his blood grew the grapevine. Thus by sacrifice of the bull to which he had resigned himself, Mithra became the creator of all good things. The Mithraic torchbearers hold a torch aloft symbolizing the rising sun, in the other hand the hold a double headed axe lifted over the shoulder. When the Greek Catholic Archbishopric was being built in Sidon in 1924, ancient stone structures came to light. Part of the was reused in the modern building. Concrete was then poured over the earlier construction for foundations. The Mithraeum of Sidon may lay brneath these foundations. The Louvre Museum holdes some of the sculptures found.

This text is from Ancient Sidon 1984 Lebanese Archaeoligical Engagement-Calendar Agenda.