Image: CIMRM 44-Mithraic pater (Dura Europos) B
Description: CIMRM 44 (vI.67): Palmyrene pater of the Roman cult of Mithras at Dura Europos (Syria), 3rd century, imagined by Franz Cumont to be a depiction of "Zoroaster" (published posthumously in 1975, "The Dura Mithraeum", Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies, pp. 151-214). Cumont's continuity hypothesis is no longer followed today. This image appears as 'plate 25' in the aforementioned text, fig. 22b in CIMRM vol I. Rostovtzeff (who supervised the dig) is quoted in the aforementioned paper (p. 183, n. 174): "The two figures are Palmyrene in all their characteristic traits. [...] Compare the pater in the Mithraeum of Sta. Prisca." They are more probably portraits of leading members of that mithraeum's congregation of Syrian auxiliaries. The Roman military presence at Dura Europos included a unit of Palmyrene archers (p. 205).
Title: CIMRM 44-Mithraic pater (Dura Europos) B
Credit: see above
Author: Unknown authorUnknown author
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License: Public domain
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