Öz
This study examines the hierarchical structure of the seven initiatory grades in Mithraism, a mystery religion that flourished during the Roman Empire. While direct textual sources on Mithraism are scarce, a rich body of archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence allows for the reconstruction of its internal organization. Each grade—from Corax to Pater—reflects both a ritual role within the cult and a symbolic stage in the spiritual ascent of the initiate. The aim of this study is not only to interpret the internal function and symbolic meaning of these grades, but also to investigate their possible origins in Eastern religious traditions. Comparative analysis with structures in Mesopotamian cosmology, ziggurat symbolism, and graded initiation systems found in Ismailism, Bektashism, Akhism, and Yezidism suggests that the Mithraic hierarchy may be part of a broader and older cultural continuum. This work employs methods from historical contextual analysis, comparative iconography, and symbolic interpretation to evaluate the theological and ritual significance of the Mithraic grades. Ultimately, the study argues that the initiatory system of Mithraism embodies not only a cultic order but also a cosmological vision of spiritual ascent and transformation.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Initiatory Grades Mystery Religions Roman Empire Symbolism Akhism
Kaynakça
- Alvar, Jaime. Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2008.
- “Ash Wednesday.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ash-Wednesday-Christian-holy-day (erişim 15.11.2024).
- Black, J. and Green, A. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. London, 1992.
- Bortolin, R. Il leontocefalo dei misteri mitraici: l’identità enigmatica di un dio. Padua, 2012.
- Bremmer, Jan N. İnitiation into the Mysteries of Ancient World. Berlin/Boston, 2014.
- Cerrahoğlu, İ. Tefsir Tarihi. Ankara, 2017.
- Chalupa, Aleš. “Seven Mithraic Grades: An Initiatory or Priestly Hierarchy”. Religio XVI, no. 2 (2008): 177 – 201.
- Chalupa, A. and Glomb, T. “The Third Symbol of the Miles Grade on the Floor Mosaic of the Felicissimus Mithraeum in Ostia: A New Interpretation.” Téma XXI, no. 1 (2013): 9 – 32.
- CIMRM, Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae.
- Clauss, Manfred. “Die sieben Grades des Mithras-Kultes.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 82, (1990): 183-194.
- Clauss, Manfred. Miles Mithrae. Klio 74, (1992), 269-274. Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries. New York: Routledge, 2001.
- Cumont, Franz. The Mysteries of Mithra. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trübner & Co, 1903.
- Daniels, C. Mithras and His Temples on the Wall. Tyne, 1989.
- Drijvers, J. W. Bardaisan of Edessa. Assen, 1966.
- Francis, E. D., “Mithraic Graffiti from Dura Europos.” Mithrai Studies, Ed. J. R. Hinnells, (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 1975, 424 – 445.
- “Fütüvvet.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/futuvvet (erişim 15.11.2024).
- Geden, Alfred Shenington. Select Passages İllustrating Mithraism. London, 1925.
- Gordon, Richard. Trajets de Mithra en Syrie romaine. Topoi 11, (2001): 77-136.
- Herodotus, Histories. Translated by A. D. Godley. London, 1920-1925.
- Homayouri, M. Origins of Persian Gnosis. London, 1992.
- Jackson, H. “The Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism.” Numen 32, no. 1 (1985): 17-45.
- Jerome, Epistulae CVII. ad Laetam. Translated by F. A. Wright. London, 1933.
- Köksal, Fatih. Ahi Evran ve Ahilik. Kırşehir, 2008.
- Lapinkivi, P. The Sumerian Sacred Marriage in the Light of Comparative Evidence. State Archives of Assyria Studies, XV. Helsinki, 2004.
- Macmullan, Ramsay. Paganism in the Roman Empire. New Haven, 1981.
- Mastrocinque, Atillio. The Mysteries of Mithras: A Different Account. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.
- Merkelbach, Reinhold. Mithras: Ein persisch-römischer Mysterienkult. Königstein, 1984.
- Merkelbach, Reinhold. Mitra, il Signore delle grotte. Genova, 1988.
- Mitthof, F. “Der Vorstand der Kültgemeinden des Mithras. Eine Sammlung und Untersuchung der inschriflichen Zeugnisse”. Klio 74, (1992): 275 – 90. Nabarz, Payam. The Mysteries of Mithras The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World. Rochester, 2005.
- Nemeti, Sorin. “Planets, grades and soteriology in Dacian Mithraism”. Acta Musei Napocensis 41–42, (2004-2005): 107–124.
- Origenes, Contra Celsum. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Cambridge, 1953.
- Parpola, S. Assyrian Prophecies, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1997.
- Porphyry, On abstinence from animal food. Translated by Thomas Taylor, 1823.
- Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey. Translated by Thomas Taylor. London, 1917.
- Provanzano, C. “The Mysteries of Mithra: Tracing Syncretistic Connections to the Ancient Near East.” Master’s Thesis, California State University, 2009.
- “Regio V - Insula IX - Mitreo di Felicissimus (V,IX,1).” Ostia-Antica.org. https://www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/9/9-1.htm (erişim 19 Mart 2025).
- Spada, C. A. “Il leo nella gerarchia dei gradi mitriaci”. Mysteria Mithrae, ed. U. Bianchi, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979), 639–648.
- Tartu, Annus Amar. “The Soul’s Journeys and Tauroctony: On Babylonian Sediment in the Syncretic Religious Doctrines of Late Antiquity”. Body and Soul in the Conceptions of the Religions, ed. M. Dietrich and T. Kulmar, (Münster: Ugarit Verlag, 2008), 1-46.
- Tertullian, De Corona. Translated by C. Dodgson, Tertullian Vol. 1. Apologetic and Practical Treatises. London, 1842.
- Turcan, Robert. Mithra et la Mithriacisme. Paris, 1993.
- Vermaseren, J. Maarten, and Essen, C. C. V. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Prisca in Rome. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965.
- Ward, W. H. “The Hittite Gods in Hittite Art.” American Journal of Archaeology 3, (1899): 1-39.
Öz
Bu çalışma, Roma İmparatorluğu döneminde yaygınlık kazanmış bir gizem dini olan Mithraizm’deki yedi dereceli inisiyasyon yapısını incelemektedir. Mithraizm’e dair doğrudan metinsel kaynaklar sınırlı olsa da, arkeolojik, epigrafik ve ikonografik açıdan zengin bir malzeme, kültün içsel örgütlenmesinin yeniden inşasına imkân tanımaktadır. Corax’tan Pater’e kadar her bir derece, kült içinde hem ritüel bir işlevi hem de inisiyenin ruhsal yükselişinde simgesel bir aşamayı temsil etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, söz konusu derecelerin kült içindeki işlev ve sembolik anlamlarını yorumlamakla kalmayıp, aynı zamanda bunların Doğu kökenli dini geleneklerle olan olası ilişkilerini de araştırmaktır. Mezopotamya kozmolojisi, ziggurat sembolizmi ve İsmaililik, Bektaşilik, Ahilik ve Yezidilik gibi geleneklerdeki dereceli inisiyasyon sistemleriyle yapılan karşılaştırmalı analizler, Mithraik hiyerarşinin daha geniş ve daha eski bir kültürel sürekliliğin parçası olabileceğini göstermektedir. Bu çalışma, Mithraik derecelerin teolojik ve ritüel önemini değerlendirmek amacıyla tarihsel bağlamsal analiz, karşılaştırmalı ikonografi ve sembolik yorumlama yöntemlerinden yararlanmaktadır. Sonuç olarak, Mithraizm’in inisiyasyon sistemi yalnızca kült içi bir düzeni değil, aynı zamanda ruhsal yükseliş ve dönüşümle ilgili kozmolojik bir vizyonu da bünyesinde barındırmaktadır.
Anahtar Kelimeler
İnisiyasyon dereceleri Gizem Dinleri Roma İmparatorluğu Sembolizm Ahilik
Kaynakça
- Alvar, Jaime. Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2008.
- “Ash Wednesday.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ash-Wednesday-Christian-holy-day (erişim 15.11.2024).
- Black, J. and Green, A. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. London, 1992.
- Bortolin, R. Il leontocefalo dei misteri mitraici: l’identità enigmatica di un dio. Padua, 2012.
- Bremmer, Jan N. İnitiation into the Mysteries of Ancient World. Berlin/Boston, 2014.
- Cerrahoğlu, İ. Tefsir Tarihi. Ankara, 2017.
- Chalupa, Aleš. “Seven Mithraic Grades: An Initiatory or Priestly Hierarchy”. Religio XVI, no. 2 (2008): 177 – 201.
- Chalupa, A. and Glomb, T. “The Third Symbol of the Miles Grade on the Floor Mosaic of the Felicissimus Mithraeum in Ostia: A New Interpretation.” Téma XXI, no. 1 (2013): 9 – 32.
- CIMRM, Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae.
- Clauss, Manfred. “Die sieben Grades des Mithras-Kultes.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 82, (1990): 183-194.
- Clauss, Manfred. Miles Mithrae. Klio 74, (1992), 269-274. Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries. New York: Routledge, 2001.
- Cumont, Franz. The Mysteries of Mithra. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trübner & Co, 1903.
- Daniels, C. Mithras and His Temples on the Wall. Tyne, 1989.
- Drijvers, J. W. Bardaisan of Edessa. Assen, 1966.
- Francis, E. D., “Mithraic Graffiti from Dura Europos.” Mithrai Studies, Ed. J. R. Hinnells, (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 1975, 424 – 445.
- “Fütüvvet.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/futuvvet (erişim 15.11.2024).
- Geden, Alfred Shenington. Select Passages İllustrating Mithraism. London, 1925.
- Gordon, Richard. Trajets de Mithra en Syrie romaine. Topoi 11, (2001): 77-136.
- Herodotus, Histories. Translated by A. D. Godley. London, 1920-1925.
- Homayouri, M. Origins of Persian Gnosis. London, 1992.
- Jackson, H. “The Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism.” Numen 32, no. 1 (1985): 17-45.
- Jerome, Epistulae CVII. ad Laetam. Translated by F. A. Wright. London, 1933.
- Köksal, Fatih. Ahi Evran ve Ahilik. Kırşehir, 2008.
- Lapinkivi, P. The Sumerian Sacred Marriage in the Light of Comparative Evidence. State Archives of Assyria Studies, XV. Helsinki, 2004.
- Macmullan, Ramsay. Paganism in the Roman Empire. New Haven, 1981.
- Mastrocinque, Atillio. The Mysteries of Mithras: A Different Account. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.
- Merkelbach, Reinhold. Mithras: Ein persisch-römischer Mysterienkult. Königstein, 1984.
- Merkelbach, Reinhold. Mitra, il Signore delle grotte. Genova, 1988.
- Mitthof, F. “Der Vorstand der Kültgemeinden des Mithras. Eine Sammlung und Untersuchung der inschriflichen Zeugnisse”. Klio 74, (1992): 275 – 90. Nabarz, Payam. The Mysteries of Mithras The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World. Rochester, 2005.
- Nemeti, Sorin. “Planets, grades and soteriology in Dacian Mithraism”. Acta Musei Napocensis 41–42, (2004-2005): 107–124.
- Origenes, Contra Celsum. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Cambridge, 1953.
- Parpola, S. Assyrian Prophecies, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1997.
- Porphyry, On abstinence from animal food. Translated by Thomas Taylor, 1823.
- Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey. Translated by Thomas Taylor. London, 1917.
- Provanzano, C. “The Mysteries of Mithra: Tracing Syncretistic Connections to the Ancient Near East.” Master’s Thesis, California State University, 2009.
- “Regio V - Insula IX - Mitreo di Felicissimus (V,IX,1).” Ostia-Antica.org. https://www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/9/9-1.htm (erişim 19 Mart 2025).
- Spada, C. A. “Il leo nella gerarchia dei gradi mitriaci”. Mysteria Mithrae, ed. U. Bianchi, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979), 639–648.
- Tartu, Annus Amar. “The Soul’s Journeys and Tauroctony: On Babylonian Sediment in the Syncretic Religious Doctrines of Late Antiquity”. Body and Soul in the Conceptions of the Religions, ed. M. Dietrich and T. Kulmar, (Münster: Ugarit Verlag, 2008), 1-46.
- Tertullian, De Corona. Translated by C. Dodgson, Tertullian Vol. 1. Apologetic and Practical Treatises. London, 1842.
- Turcan, Robert. Mithra et la Mithriacisme. Paris, 1993.
- Vermaseren, J. Maarten, and Essen, C. C. V. The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Prisca in Rome. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965.
- Ward, W. H. “The Hittite Gods in Hittite Art.” American Journal of Archaeology 3, (1899): 1-39.
Ayrıntılar
| Birincil Dil | İngilizce |
|---|---|
| Konular | Arkeoloji Bilimi |
| Bölüm | Araştırma Makaleleri |
| Yazarlar | |
| Erken Görünüm Tarihi | 30 Mayıs 2025 |
| Yayımlanma Tarihi | 30 Mayıs 2025 |
| Gönderilme Tarihi | 8 Mayıs 2025 |
| Kabul Tarihi | 26 Mayıs 2025 |
| Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2025 Cilt: 3 Sayı: 3 |
