From: CeiSerith@...
Message: 17820
Date: 2003-01-20
For instance, the death of the bull in the Roman Mithras
tradition - the source of the last image to which you refer - has been
associated, IIRC, with the mythical up-ending of the ecliptical plane, and
the consequent beginning of time [Clauss, M. (2000), “The Roman Cult of
Mithras": 88.]
This is David Ulansey's theory (The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries). It isn't so much that it began time, but rather that there was a change in how one rises up through the spheres of the planets in order to reach the stars. If you don't know the new way you get lost, so the mysteries were intended to teach that new way. I don't buy this theory myself, but it is taken quite seriously within the field of Mithraic studies. My guess is that it will eventually be abandoned (at least in its current form) after having stimulated much discussion and advances in the field.
It must be noted that Mithraism is a very late, post-Christian, religion, with the earliest Mithraic artifacts dated to the end of the first century CE. It thus reflects a very sophisticated view of astronomy and astrology.
David Fickett-Wilbar