So in the previous entry we established what Mithraism isn't now I will try to explain the goals and the theology of Mithraism in this entry and those to come
today we are going to talk about the Lords of light beginning with Phanes and ending with Mithras/Sol Invictus:
Mithras is the last succesor of light, the Seventh Baliseus (pronounched Vasilefs) so I present you a list with description of those before him:
Phanis:
The primordial state of the universe is called Ineffable, consisting of Water (which is one of the same set of continous substances, Fire and Aether) and Earth. From this Primeval situation, Cronus (Unageing time) united with Ananke (Necessity). Cronus then gave birth to unbounded Caos, moist Aether and misty Erebus (Darkness). From Aether, Cronus created an egg from which Phanes, the First-born of the Gods, was born: Phanes the creator of all.
Phanes made the imperishable house of the Immortals, the Great Sun, the Earth and the Great Moon, He gave his scepter the Caduceus (which unites the three worlds and emanates prophecy) to Nox (the Night) due to his incessable and greatly powerful nature, she then gave birth to Tellus Mater and Uranus
In Iconography, Phanes is depicted as marvelously beautiful, emitting great light. "With four eyes looking this way and that With golden wings moving this way and that. Uttering the voice of a bull and of a glaring lion." He is also described marvelously in the Orphic hymn To Prohtogonos:
O Mighty first-begotten, hear my pray'r,Two-fold, egg-born, and wand'ring thro' the air,Bull-roarer, glorying in thy golden wings,From whom the race of Gods and mortals springs.Ericapæus, celebrated pow'r,Ineffable, occult, all shining flow'r.From eyes obscure thou wip'st the gloom of night,All-spreading splendour, pure and holy light;Hence Phanes call'd, the glory of the sky,On waving pinions thro' the world you fly.Priapus, dark-ey'd splendour, thee I sing,Genial, all-prudent, ever-blessed king,With joyful aspect on our rights divineAnd holy sacrifice (Telite) propitious shine.
After Phanes comes the Second Vasilefs, Nox and there is not much to say about her divinity
Then came Uranus or Caelus (Heaven) and due to lack of time I cannot explain you the whole story but you should at least be familiar with the story of Uranus and his son Iuppiter overthrowing him, and here is where Mithras and Sol Invictus begin to be relevant
after Uranus, obviously came Iuppiter
Iuppiter enters the Cave (Antron, Gr. Ἄντρον, ἌΝΤΡΟΝ) of Nox, "swallows" (controls) Phanes, and creates the universe anew:
Here, Iove Pater creates everything anew by ingesting not only the numen (imprint or "footstep" of a God which is normally present in temples and sacred things) but the whole GodIuppiter speaks: "Mother, highest of the Gods, immortal Night, how am I to establish my proud rule among the Immortals? How may I have all things one and each one separate? 'Surround all things with the ineffable Aether, and in the midst the sea, and in the midst all the constellations with which the heaven is crowned. But when thou shalt stretch a strong bond about all things, fitting a golden chain from the Aether.' Thus then engulfing the might of Phanes, the Firstborn, he held the body of all things in the hollow of his own belly; and he mingled with his own limbs the power and strength of the God. Therefore together with him all things in Zeus were created anew, the shining height of the broad Aether and the sky, the seat of the unharvested sea and the noble earth, great Ocean and the lowest depths beneath the earth, and rivers and the boundless sea and all else, all Immortal and blessed Gods and Goddesses, all that was then in being and all that was to come to pass, all was there, and mingled like streams in the belly of Iuppiter."
In the next entry I shall continue with the Sixth Vasilefs and How he came to be
