Mithras, the focus of the cult The Mysteries of Mithras was a prominent mystery religion in the Roman Empire from early A.D.  to the 4th century. In theory, it came from Persia, being the roman version of the Persian fire/sun god Mithra. This theory was espoused by Franz Cumont, though there is much debate about this. Plutarch claims that it was started by the pirates of Cicilia in Asia minor and, because of archeological evidence showing that the most important cult in this area was dedicated to Perseus, David Ulansey, in his The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, takes this to mean that Mithras is a version of Perseus and uses this to develop his theory on the astrological focus of Mithraism. Because of the nature of a mystery religion, the adherents wrote nothing down, at least, nothing that survived. There exists a text referred to as the “Mithras Liturgy” from the Greek Magical Papyri and it should be taken into account, but its legitimacy is questioned. The only information ...