On the Astronomical Explanation of Phanes's Relief at Modena

Cumont F. , The mysteries of Mithra, transl. by McCormack Th. J. (New York, 1956; first pub. 1903), Fig. 49, p. 223: “Mithraic Kronos, or personification of infinite Time…. Here represented without the head of a lion, which appears on the breast of the figure. A Roman beautification of the horrific features of the Oriental god.” See also Cumont F. , “Notice sur deux bas-reliefs mithraiques”, Revue archéologique, i (1902), 1–13. Vermaseren M. J. , Corpus inscriptionum monumentorum religionis Mithraicae (= CIMRM), i-ii (The Hague, 1956–60), Mon. no. 695 (Fig. 197). Merkelbach R. , Mithras (Königstein/Ts, 1984), 324–5. Jackson H. M. , “The meaning and function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism”, Numen, xxxii (1985), 17–45, p. 19. The first scholar who recognized the figure on the relief as the Orphic Phanes was Eisler R. , Weltenmantel und Himmelszeit (Munich, 1910), 400f.; later also Cumont F. , “Mithra et l'Orphisme”, Revue de l'histoire des religions, cix (1934), 63–72. Staudacher W. , Die Trennung von Himmel und Erde [diss., Tübingen University, 1942] (Darmstadt, 1968). Recently West M. L. , The Orphic poems (Oxford, 1983), 253–4. Beck R. , Planetary gods and planetary orders in the mysteries of Mithras (Leiden, 1988), 58–59.

In the time of Murator (1672–1750) this relief was in the palace of the Marquis Sigismondo d'Esté, in S. Martino a Rio (between Mantua and Modena). As many items of the Marquis's collection had been brought from Rome, it is generally assumed that this relief also comes from Rome and dates from the time of the Emperor Hadrian. Eisler, op. cit. (ref. 1), 400. Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 324: “Die Herkunft des Reliefs aus Rom scheint fast sicher wegen der nur in diesem Relief so klaren Angleichung des Mithras an den orphischen Urgott Phanes; diese Gleichung ist bisher allein in einer Inschrift aus Rom bezeugt, V 475= Moretti, I.G. urbis Romae 108: [= to Zeus, Sun, Mithras, Phanes]”.

Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 324. Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 400: Euphrosyn[e]…. Cumont , op. cit. (ref. 1, 1902), 9: E]YPHROSY[ne et] FELIX….

On the various versions and traditions of the Orphic theogonies, see Staudacher, op. cit. (ref. 1) and West, op. cit. (ref. 1).

Damascius , De princ. 123b = O(rphic) F(rag.) 54, in: Kern O. , Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin, 1922).

O(rphic) H(ymn) 12, v.6, in: G. Quandt, Orphei hymni (Berlin, 1955).

See ref. 5. Hermias , In Plat. Phaedr. 248c = OF 105, in: Kern , op. cit. (ref. 5).

See ref. 5.

Damascius , De princ. 55 = OF 70, in: Kern , op. cit. (ref. 5).

Ibid., Athenagoras, Pro christ. 18 = OF 57.

OH 6, v. 2, 6–8, in: Quandt, op. cit. (ref. 6).

Proclus , In Plat. Tim. 30c, d = OF 81 and 31a = OF 85, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

See ref. 5. Hermias , In Plat. Phaedr. 247c = OF 86, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

Damascius , De princ. 124 = Acusilaos, B 1, 3, in: Kranz H. Diels — W. , Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 10th edn (= DK) (Zürich, 1961). Aristophanes, Aves 696. OH 58, v. 4–5, 8, in: Quandt, op. cit. (ref. 6). Proclus , In Plat. Tim. 31a = OF 74 and 33c = OF 82, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

Proclus , In Plat. Tim. 29a, b = OF 170, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5). Zeus was the fifth king of the gods (OF 107) following Chronos-Heracles, Phanes, Ouranos and Cronos. After he became king, Zeus created the world anew, which he could do because he included in himself the creative principles that had acted in previous stages of world creation (OF 167, OH 15 v. 3–5). For example, the myths that Zeus swallowed the goddess Metis (DK, Pherecydes, B 3) and that he was transformed into Eros, in order to create the world (Hesiod, Theog. 886–96; Apollodorus I, iii, 6), refer to the swallowing of Phanes (= Metis = Eros) by Zeus who wished to become a creator himself. Athena born from the head of Zeus, after he had swallowed his first wife Metis, is the expression of Phanes-Metis through Zeus; therefore Athena is called “bisexual, metis, dragon” and is “of changeful form” as Phanes (OH 32, v. 10–11; Maria Papathanassiou , Cosmogonical and cosmological ideas in Greece in the second millenium b.c., diss. (in Greek) (Athens, 1978), 74–77). Dionysos, the great god of ancient mysteries, was the only one of Zeus's children who succeeded him as king of the gods (OF 208). The Titans, having covered their faces with gypsum, deceived the baby Dionysos with toys and while he looked at his face in a mirror they killed him. Zeus resurrected his son and after killing the Titans with his thunderbolt, he created the human race from their ashes (OF 209, 210, 220).

See refs 5 and 10. Athenagoras, Pro christ. 20 = OF 58, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

See ref. 5. Eros riding a lion: Coin of Callatis, in: Karl Otfried Müller, Denkmaeler der alten Kunst, 2nd edn rev. by F. Wieseler (2 vols, Göttingen, 1854, 1856; hereafter: Müller-Wieseler), ii, Table 51, Fig. 637. Winged Eros with a lunar crescent over his right shoulder and surrounded by stars holds a chain; in front of his feet there is a lion-headed snake: Engraved gem, in: Eduard Gerhardt, Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen und kleine Schriften (2 vols + figures, Berlin, 1866, 1868), ii, 77f. (note 19), 557 (no. 15), Table 52, Fig. 16. Snake with a lunar crescent on his head: Potsherd from the acropolis of Sousa, in: Jeremias A. , Handbuch der altorientalischen Geistkultur, 2nd edn (Berlin/Leipzig, 1929), 194, Fig. 109.

Proclus , In Plat. Tim. 30c, d = OF 79, OF 81, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

OH 12, v. 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, in: Quandt, op. cit. (ref. 6).

Ibid., OH 11, v. 1–4, 10–11

Matalas , Chronogr. IV 88–92 = OF 62, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

MacRobius , Saturn. I 23, §§21–22 = OF 236, in: Kern , op. cit. (ref. 5). Chronos-Heracles , Phanes, Pan and Sun can be considered as personifications of the various aspects and functions of the Sun as a celestial body. The twelve labours of Heracles symbolize the movement of the Sun through the twelve zodiacal constellations (OH 12, v. 11–12). Eisler (op. cit. (ref. 1), 517) says that the first to relate the labours of Heracles to the zodiacal constellations was one Dupuys (Origine de tous les cultes (Paris, 1794)). See also Dupuys , Abregé de l'origine de tous les cultes (Paris, 1820), chap. 5, “Explication de l'Héracléide…”, 105–22. The achievements of Heracles in chasing away and destroying the wild human races in his desire for peace (OH 12, v. 2, 7, 8, 10) can be considered as human achievements accomplished over several centuries. Taking into account that Cronos is called “revered Prometheus” (OH 13, v. 7) and that Prometheus was a benefactor of humanity (Aeschylus, Prometh., 436–506), we can also see that his good deeds are achievements of humanity over a long period of time; consequently Prometheus is another personification of time (Papathanassiou, op. cit. (ref. 15), 56–58, 62–64).

OH 45, v. 2; OH 50, v. 2; OH 52, v. 1, in: Quandt, op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 30, v. 2–3, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 50, v. 5, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Proclus, In Plat. Tim. 29a, b = OF 85, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

OH 52, v. 6–7, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 30, v. 3, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 52, v. 2, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 30, v. 4; OH 45, v. 1, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6). Euripides , Bacchae 100, 920–2, 1017, 1159, 1185 (ed. by Murray G. , 2nd edn (Oxford, 1913)). Dionysos as a bull-faced child on Persephone's knees: Red-figured cylix in the National Library of Paris, Gazette archéologique, v (1879), Pl. 3. The bull plays an important role in Greek mythology; for example, Io's transformation into a white cow, Zeus's transformation into a bull in order to rape Europa, and the bull-faced Minotaur, son of Poseidon's sacred bull and Pasiphae (= Moon) (Apollodorus II, i, 3; III, i, 1 and 3–4); the Sun's sacred drove in Sicily (Homer, Odys. I 8, XI 108–9, XII 128–35, …); the famous bull-fights in Crete and other districts (Liddell-Scott, A Greek-English lexicon (1968 edn), 1760).

Euripides , op. cit. (ref. 30), 1017–18.

Athenagoras , see ref. 16.

Nonnos , Dionysiaca (ed. by Ludwich A. (Leipzig, 1909)), II, 423.

MacRobius , Saturn. 1, 17, 59 = Euripides Fr. 943, in: Tragicorum Graecorum fragmenta (= TGF), ed. by Nauck A. , 2nd edn (Leipzig, 1889), 664.

OH 14, v. 2; OH 27, v. 3, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Ibid., OH 40, v. 14–15. Papathanassiou , op. cit. (ref. 15), 107–8.

Proclus , In Plat. Kratyl. 403e = OF 145; Diodorus I 12, 4 = OF 302, in: Kern , op. cit. (ref. 5).

OH 8, v. 19, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Chassapis C. , Greek astronomy in the second millennium b.c. according to the Orphic hymns, diss. (in Greek) (Athens, 1967), 36–38, 76.

OH 27, v. 4–5, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 10, v. 22–24, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

OH 26, v. 8–9, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Chassapis , op. cit. (ref. 39), 22–25, 57–60.

Clem. Alex., Strom. VI, p. 742 = Sophocles Fr. 280, in: TGF 196; Oedip. Tyr. 1213. Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 388.

OH 8, v. 1; OH 9, v. 7, in: Quandt , op. cit. (ref. 6). Orpheus, B 21, Demeterhymnus , in: Eisler DK ., op. cit. (ref. 1), 388, ref. 8.

Schol. Aristoph. Aves 179 = Kritias, B18, in: DK.

Athenagoras, see ref. 16.

Damascius , see ref. 5. Proclus, In Plat. Republ. II 138, 8 Kr. = OF 66, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 389, and 392, ref. 2.

Ibid. 390, ref. 3: On Cybele's “hands” and “dactyloi” as units of measure.

Clerc M. , “Inscriptions de la vallée du Méandre”, Bulletin de correspondance Hellénique, xi (1887), 346–54, p. 349 (from Attuda), no. 5, 4. On Adrasteia's tambourines as typical also in the cult of Rhea-Cybele: Hermias, In Plat. Phaedr. 248c = OF 105, and Proclos , Theol. Plat. IV 16 = OF 152, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5). Eisler, op. cit. (ref. 1), 391, ref. 2.

Cumont F. , Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra (= TMMM) (2 vols, Brussels, 1899, 1896), ii, Mon. no. 10 (Fig. 21, p. 196), no. 35 (Fig. 41, p. 214), no. 37 (Fig. 44, p. 213), no. 39 (Fig. 46, p. 215), no. 40 (Fig. 47, p. 216), no. 80 (Fig. 68, p. 238), no. 81 (Fig. 69, p. 239), and no. 101 (Fig. 96, p. 259). Vermaseren, CIMRM, Mon. no. 78 (Figs 29a, b), no. 94 (Fig. 35), no. 103 (Fig. 36), nos 127–8 (Fig. 42), no. 312 (Fig. 85) = 80 TMMM, no. 314 (Fig. 86) = 81 TMMM, no. 326 (Figs 89–90), no. 353 (Fig. 100) = 18 TMMM, no. 354 (Fig. 101), no. 383 (Fig. 109) = 10b TMMM, no. 503 (Fig. 144) = 22 TMMM, no. 543 (Fig. 152) = 39 TMMM, no. 545 (Fig. 153) = 37 TMMM, no. 550 (Fig. 156) = 34 TMMM, no. 551 (Fig. 157) = 35 TMMM, no. 665 (Fig. 188) = 101 TMMM.

Cumont , TMMM, ii, Mon. nos 10, 40, 80, and others.

Ibid., Mon. nos 37, 39, and others.

Jackson , op. cit. (ref. 1), 18.

Cumont , TMMM, i, 77–78.

Ibid. 75; TMMM, ii, Mon. no. 240 (Fig. 214, p. 340).

Cumont , TMMM, i, 79.

Jackson , op. cit. (ref. 1), 19.

Ibid. 24.

In Babylonian Enuma Elish (IV 135 — V 22), after Marduk with the younger gods defeated the older ones, he created the world from the corpse of Tiamat. In Manichaismus Creator defeated the demons; then he created the sky from their skin, the mountains from their bones, and the Earth from their flesh. In Rigveda (X 90) the first man, Purusa, was sacrificed by gods. In Iran the seven metals and the first human couple were created from a sacrificed man named Gayomard. In Egypt also the fruitful Nile plain was created from the members of the killed and dismembered Osiris (Merkelbach, op. cit. (ref. 1), 159, ref. 3, and 196, ref. 6).

Ibid. 12.

Porphyry , De antro nympharum 6, in: Porphyrii philosophi Platonici Opuscula selecta, ed. by Nauck A. (Leipzig, 1886), 60, v. 7–9. Clemens Alex , Homilia VI, c. 9–10, in: De Lagarde , Clementina (Leipzig, 1865), 76. Hesychius , Lexicon, ed. by Schmidt M. (Jena, 1860), iii, 108. Himerius , Oratio VII, ed. by Dübner F. (Paris, 1849), 60. Proclus , Paraphrasis in Ptolemaei libros IV de siderum effectionibus, ed. by Allatius L. (Leiden, 1635), 93. Strabon , Geographica, XV, chap. 3, §13, ed. by Gustav Kramer (Berlin, 1844, 1847, 1852), iii, 255. For these see Cumont, TMMM, ii, 9, 17, 43, 49.

Herodotus, I, 132, ed. by Hude C. , 3rd edn (Oxford, 1927). Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 199.

Roscher W. H. , Selene und Verwandtes (Leipzig, 1890), 37, 170f.; also “Mondgöttin”, in: Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (6 vols, Leipzig, 1884–1937), cols 3136–42. Babylonian tablet (VAT 7851) in Berlin: New moon's and dark moon's struggle between Pleiades and the constellation of Taurus, in: Jeremias , op. cit. (ref. 17), 215, Plate 130. Moon on a bull-yoked chariot, in: Müller-Wieseler , op. cit. (ref. 17), ii, Table 16, 176. Head of a bull with a lunar crescent and a star on a coin of Eucarpeia, in: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, xliii (1928), 120, Plate 69. God “Men” and his symbols on a votive relief from Attica (British Museum), in: Bulletin de correspondance Hellénique, xxiii (1899), Pl. 1.

Philodemos , “To Hetaira Kallistion”, in: Anthologia Graeca epigrammatum Palatina…, ed. by Stadtmueller H. (Leipzig, 1894), V 122, I.

OH 9, v. 2, in: Quandt, op. cit. (ref. 6).

Nonnos , op. cit. (ref. 33), XIII 309.

Bundahisn 1, 49, in: Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 12, note 8. Cf. Lucian, Philopseudes 14.

Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 16.

Porphyry , op. cit. (ref. 63), 7, p. 60, v. 21–22

Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 200, note 16: For example, CIMRM, Mon. nos 390, 1083.

According to texts, see Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 63, note 3. Iconographically, see Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 200: “Venige farbige Fresken sind erhalten; auf ihnen ist der Mantel entweder himmelblau (V 181, und Vermaseren, Mithriaca III, Tafeln III und IV), oder feurigrot (V 390), was ebenfalls den Himmel (das Empyreum) bedeutet”.

Cumont , TMMM, ii, no. 82 (Fig. 70, p. 230), no. 79 (Fig. 67, p. 236), also Fig. 339, p. 447.

Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 60–62. Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 199: “Mehrfach sieht man auf dem Mantel [des Mithras] sieben Sterne, also die sieben Planeten [CIMRM, Mon. nos 245, 310, 321, 368, 390, 1727, and others].” Cf. Dionysos dressed with a deerskin or pantherskin, which imitates the starry sky: Nonnos, op. cit. (ref. 33), IX 186–7, Euripides Fr. 752, in: TGF; Orpheus, Argonautics, v. 450–1, in Orphica, ed. by Hermannus G. (Leipzig, 1805), 91; (pantherskin) Orphic Fr. 152, 4 in: Orphica, ed. by Abel E. (Leipzig, 1885).

Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 222.

Beck , op. cit. (ref. 1), 20.

Hartner W. , “The earliest history of the constellations in the Near East and the motif of the lion-bull combat”, in: Hartner W. , Oriens-occidens (Hildesheim, 1968), 227–59.

Ibid. 229.

Ibid., 230–1.

Ibid. 235.

Ibid. 237.

Heliacal rising = first visible appearance on eastern horizon before sunrise. Achronycal rising = last visible rising in the evening just after sunset. Cosmical setting = first visible setting just before sunrise. Heliacal setting = last visible setting just after sunset.

Hartner , op. cit. (ref. 78), 241.

Ibid. 242.

Proclus , In Plat. Tim. 38c = OF 92, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

Zeus (or Hieratic Dionysos) dressed with the Dionysiac stola holds on his knees the young (seasonal) Dionysos: Red-figured attic crater (c. 475 b.c.) in the National Museum at Bologna, in: Archaeologischer Anzeiger, xliii (1928), 131, Fig. 9.

See ref. 31.

Proclus , In Plat. Tim. 22c = OF 92, in: Kern, op. cit. (ref. 5).

Cumont , TMMM, ii, Mon. no. 37 (Figs 43 and 44, pp. 214–15).

Lekatsas P. , Dionysos: Origin and evolution of the Dionysiac cult (in Greek) (Athens, 1971), 47, 81, 110, 127, 131, and elsewhere.

Gruppe O. , Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte (= Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (Munich, 1906), v/2, 427, note 4. Redlich R. , Magdeburg. Zeitung, nos 654, 663 (1908), and “Vom Drachen zu Babel, eine Tierkreisstudie”, Globus, lxxxiv (1903), 364f., 384f., in Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 395–6.

Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 401, note 2. Cumont, see ref. 90.

Merkelbach , op. cit. (ref. 1), 226–7, note 92, and 324.

Eisler , op. cit. (ref. 1), 402, notes 3–8. Staudacher , op. cit. (ref. 4), 99.

Papathanassiou , op. cit. (ref. 15), 108 (ref. 5) — 110.