Cooking and Community in the Cult of Mithras (20 min)

Presenters

Brigitte Keslinke, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

Since antiquity, a communal meal has been considered a fundamental—if not the fundamental—aspect of the worship of the Roman god Mithras, and because of this, scholars studying the cult have long considered the textual, visual, and architectural evidence for these banquets. These discussions, though, have traditionally been rather narrowly focused and consumption-centered, thereby reinforcing a set of long-standing suppositions that surround mystery cults like that of Mithras—namely that they were unique, autonomous, and exclusive. To push back on such assumptions, this paper explores the preparatory activities that preceded these banquets. Although it is often assumed that such activities were likewise confined to the space of the mithraeum, and therefore accessible to a relatively small number of initiates, the evidence suggests rather the opposite. Through a systematic survey of the architectural remains of 100 mithraea from across the Roman Empire, this paper demonstrates that, with few exceptions (e.g., Carrawburgh, Lentia, and Martigny), food was likely prepared outside the mithraeum, whether somewhere else within the sanctuary or the surrounding settlement. We might imagine, for example, someone grilling meat from the sacrifice in an adjacent, open-air courtyard, or participants providing foods prepared at home or purchased from a neighborhood establishment. Regardless, the resulting conclusion is the same: although participants may have consumed their food while shrouded in secrecy, it likely was not produced in such conditions. Ultimately, this paper reconstructs a rather different picture of Mithras-worship and argues for significant entanglement between ritual and nonritual participants, places, and consumption practices.