Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

"This place is the sun cave of ancient Mithraism." The first time he saw the statue, Liang En recognized the statue and what it represented.

The reason why Liang En was able to make this decision with such certainty is also very simple, because he discovered that the marble statue placed on the main seat of the cave was carved from the statue of Mithras slaughtering the bull.

This is a very beautifully carved and powerful statue: Mithras, who is located in the center of the statue, straddles the back of a bull, presses the bull's waist with his left knee, and clamps his right leg tightly The cow's buttocks, his right foot stepped on the cow's hind leg.

At the same time, Mithra grabbed the cow's nostril with his left hand and pulled it up hard, forcing the cow to raise its head. The dagger in his right hand penetrated deeply into the bull's neck and killed the bull.

And just around this wound, bunches of wheat ears poured out from the wound. It is used to reflect the part where Mithras performed miracles that the statue wants to express.

Next to the wound, a dog and a snake were licking the blood left in the wound, while a scorpion crawled behind the cow and used its clamps to pinch the bull's balls.

Like the Christian cross, this statue of Mithras slaying a bull is a central symbol of the religion. According to the conclusions of modern archaeologists, the ears of wheat on the cow represent fertility, indicating that Mithras is a fertility god.

Among other things, the white bull represented the moon and Mithras the sun. Then Mithras' killing of the bull means the victory of the sun over the moon.

In the ancient Eryuan theological system, "sun-moon" corresponds to "life-death." Then Mithras killing the bull represents the transition from life to death, and the bull giving birth to grain represents resurrection after death.

It is precisely because such a statue can fully realize the teachings of Mithraism, so every sun cave used as a religious occasion for Mithraism may have nothing else, but there must be such a statue.

"Yes, it should be just like what you said." As an expert in ancient Roman history, Professor Brown also confirmed this almost at the same time when he saw the statue. "And the cave at this location is also very consistent with the layout of the sun cave."

The reason why he was able to make such an inference is simply because Mithraism had spread throughout all the territories of ancient Rome. Therefore, temples are also scattered throughout the territory of the ancient Roman Empire, so there are too many examples for comparison.

These solar holes are distributed in a vast space ranging from the coast of the Black Sea in the east, to the Scottish mountains in the north, to the Sahara Desert in the south, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. In the city of Rome alone, people have dug 45 sun holes.

According to historical records, the Mithraic faith appeared among the Aryans in Central Asia 4,000 years ago. Then with the migration of the Aryans, it was introduced eastward to India and southward to Persia. and developed many variations.

What’s more interesting is that traces of this religion can be found in Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Hinduism and Buddhism. At the same time in the West, this belief was successively believed by the Hittite Empire, various Hellenistic kingdoms, and Mediterranean pirates.

In the first century BC, Mithraism was introduced into the Roman Republic during the civil war.

As early as 67 BC, when General Pompey exterminated the Cilicia pirates, he discovered that they were holding mysterious rituals to worship Mithras on Mount Olympus. After that, this religion entered Rome.

As a country that believes in polytheism, Rome rarely destroys the beliefs of a region after conquering it. Instead, it often incorporates the gods of the region into Rome's polytheistic system.

Therefore, Mithraism also became popular in ancient Rome after that war, and even became one of the core religions of the Roman Empire for a time.

At the beginning, the spread of this religion was mainly concentrated among the lower class people, especially barbarian slaves and mercenaries, because this religion is not restricted to the origin, race and customs of believers.

Mithraism even deliberately confused itself with other religions. For example, it worshiped various popular gods at the time in its temples, and allowed believers to join this religion without giving up their original beliefs.

Because of this approach, compared to the worship of the Great Mother, the worship of Dionysus, or the worship of Isis in Egypt that were popular in ancient Rome, this religion can be said to have stronger vitality, and its influence is no less than that of Christianity in later generations. .

An authoritative French scholar on early Christianity, Ernst Renan, once said, "If the growth of Christianity had been hindered by fatal diseases, the entire world would be Mithraic today."

Even though this religion has been destroyed by Christianity today, it still leaves deep traces in Christianity. For example, December 25th, when Christmas is celebrated, is actually the birthday of Mithras.

In addition, similar content can be found in Christianity such as Mithraism in which the gods pointed at the jar to make water slowly gush out, the consumption of bread and wine in the Eucharist to be reborn, and the practice of penance.

However, because of this approach of not sacrificing the cost of preaching, and even giving up the seriousness of the doctrine, huge problems have arisen in terms of the purity of the doctrine, the rigor of the order, and the strictness of the canon.

So after the 4th century, the competition between the Christian churches caused Mithraism to lose the favor of the army and nobles. Then this scattered, ruler-dependent religion completely disappeared, leaving only relics scattered around the Mediterranean area.

But even so, even in the 6th century AD, in many villages in Europe, lower-class Christians would always bow and pray to the sun when it rose.

Since Mithraism was a male-only religion, it soon became the religion of the soldiers. Moreover, the doctrine of Mithras' resurrection from the dead is also very popular with these soldiers who lick blood from their swords.

Therefore, this religion once filled the ancient Roman frontier areas, and traces of this religion can be found in Britain, the Rhine, the Danube and the Euphrates.

Considering that there is a fortress on the Antonine Wall a few thousand meters away, with a large garrison, it is very reasonable for a Mithraic Sun Cave to appear here.

As for why this cave was built in the wilderness, it is because the Sun Cave itself prefers to find hidden places for the sake of mystery. At least the remains excavated now can show a clear tendency in this regard.

As everyone gradually entered the room, the cleaning work quickly began. It turned out that this temple was a high-standard temple. The entire space was divided into three parts by two horizontal stone walls, like a Chinese character.

"This should be the servant's room." Looking at the empty space after entering the cave, Mr. Brown explained to Liang En in a low voice, "And the room at the back is a warehouse for placing necessary items for the ceremony."

"As for the room we saw with the statue, it is located in the innermost part of the cave. It is the main hall of the Sun Cave, which is where various religious ceremonies are held."

Following Professor Brown's introduction, Liang En also followed the road step by step and walked deeper into the cave. Soon, he realized that the first two rooms of the sun cave were empty, with nothing in them.