title: New York Rangers

text: The Rangers received the second overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, and subsequently used it to select forward Kaapo Kakko. On May 17, 2019, former Ranger goaltender and broadcaster John Davidson resigned from his position as president of the Columbus Blue Jackets and returned to New York to become the organization's new president. Davidson and Gorton addressed the team's defensive woes by acquiring top prospect Adam Fox from Carolina for a pair of picks, as well as veteran defenseman Jacob Trouba. The team also signed free agent Artemi Panarin to a seven-year deal on July 1, 2019. To help with salary cap restrictions, the Rangers then traded Jimmy Vesey and bought out the last two years of Shattenkirk's contract.


title: New York Rangers

text: The was a step forward for the rebuilding Rangers; Panarin lived up expectations and earned a Hart Trophy nomination, rookie goaltender Igor Shestyorkin proved to be a worthy successor to aging superstar Henrik Lundqvist, Chris Kreider signed a seven-year contract extension, and Mika Zibanejad emerged as an elite forward, recording a 5-goal-game against Washington on March 5 and ending up with 41 goals in 57 games played. By early March 2020, the Rangers were within striking distance of the second wild-card position when the coronavirus pandemic halted the regular season. In May 2020, the league announced a 24-team playoff tournament to complete the season, where the Rangers were seeded eleventh and faced the Carolina Hurricanes; the Hurricanes swept the Rangers. After being eliminated from the playoffs the Rangers were entered into the second phase of the NHL draft lottery where the team won the lottery and were awarded the first pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which Gorton used to select Alexis Lafreniere. Later in the off-season, the team traded veteran defenseman Marc Staal to the Red Wings.


title: New York Rangers

text: In September 2020, the Rangers bought out the final year of Henrik Lundqvist's contract, ending his tenure in New York after 15 years.


title: New York Rangers

text: On January 31, 2021, defenseman Tony DeAngelo was placed on waivers by the Rangers, following reports that he had an altercation with teammate Alexandar Georgiev following an overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to "The Athletic," his continued "maturity" issues, combined with a marked decline in his play, led the Rangers to put him on the market; there were no takers.


title: New York Rangers

text: In a game against the Washington Capitals on May 3, 2021, Capitals forward Tom Wilson cross-checked Pavel Buchnevich in the head and slammed Artemi Panarin into the ice, ending his season. Wilson, a repeat offender, was fined the league maximum of $5,000 for the incident. The Rangers organization released a statement expressing disappointment in this decision, calling head of player safety George Parros "unfit to continue in his current role". The NHL subsequently fined the Rangers $250,000 for their comments. Two days later, Rangers owner James Dolan fired president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton. Despite the timing, Dolan stated the firings were not related to the Wilson incident and statement, citing "culture" issues within the organization. Chris Drury was then announced as the Rangers' new president and general manager. On May 12, Drury fired head coach David Quinn after the team failed to qualify for the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. Despite a tumultuous season, a major bright spot was the play of Adam Fox; he led NHL defensemen with 42 assists, finished second in points with 47, and won the James Norris Memorial Trophy.


title: New York Rangers

text: In the 2021–22 season, the Rangers finished the regular season with a record of 52–24–6. The Rangers made the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 season following a 5–1 win against the Ottawa Senators. For the third time in franchise history, the Rangers overcame a 3–1 series deficit, this time against the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the first round following a game-winning goal from Artemi Panarin in overtime. In the next round, they would defeat the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games after trailing 2–0 and 3–2 in the series, advancing to their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2015. In the Eastern Conference Finals, they would take on the back-to-back defending champions Tampa Bay Lightning, but would lose the series despite having a 2–0 series lead. Igor Shesterkin was named the Vezina Trophy winner following the season.


title: New York Rangers

text: The classic Rangers sweater has been in use since the franchise's foundation, with several alterations along the way. The current blue uniform has the serifed word "RANGERS" in red and white drop shadow arranged diagonally, with red and white stripes on the sleeves and tail. Originally, the uniform was light blue, before it switched to a darker classic Rangers "Broadway Blue" in 1929. In addition, the original versions neither had a drop shadow nor were serifed. During the 1946–47 season, the word "RANGERS" was arranged in an arch form above the sweater number. It adopted its current form the next season, along with dropshadowed numbers, except for a brief period where the city name was used, a tie-down collar was not used and the tail and sleeve stripes were separated by thin blue stripes. Red pants have been used with the uniform since the 1929–30 season.


title: New York Rangers

text: The white jerseys were first unveiled in the 1951–52 season, as part of a mandate that regulated NHL teams to have a dark home jersey and a light away jersey. The serifed word "RANGERS" is also arranged diagonally, but in blue with red drop shadow. A quinticolor of blue, white and red stripes accentuate the tail and sleeves, while a blue shoulder yoke with white and red stripes completes the look. The white sweaters, with minor changes such as a tie-down collar and arched player names, have remained virtually unchanged since.


title: New York Rangers

text: During the tenure of general manager John Ferguson Sr., he sought to modernize the Rangers sweater by featuring rounded numbers, a darker shade of blue and the shield logo, which was unveiled in the 1976–77 season. A blue and red stripe (white and red stripe in the blue sweaters) extend from the yoke to the sleeves, while blue pants were used. However, it proved unpopular with the fans, and following the 1977–78 season it was replaced by an updated version of their classic uniforms. Ferguson used this similar design when he became GM of the original Winnipeg Jets.


title: New York Rangers

text: The modernized classic uniforms introduced in 1978 featured some subtle changes. Both jerseys featured a V-neck collar in a red-white-red pattern, and bolder stripes on the sleeves and waistline. On the blue jersey, the red and white stripes were separated by thin blue stripes, along with the waistline stripes being raised above the hemline so that the patterns on both jerseys matched. From 1978 to 1987, the blue jersey (then the road jersey) featured "NEW YORK" diagonally across the front instead of the traditional "RANGERS" wordmark, similar to their 2010s heritage alternate jerseys. In 1997, the Rangers reverted the blue jersey's design, restoring the old striping pattern, and becoming the first team to re-introduce lace-up collars. The white jerseys followed suit in 1999, and the design was carried over to the Reebok Edge template in 2007.


title: New York Rangers

text: On October 7, 2001, the Rangers wore a modified version of their blue jerseys in a home game against the Buffalo Sabres. This design combined the current/traditional striping with the "NEW YORK" wordmark of the 1978–1987 uniforms. The uniforms were worn in the wake of the September 11 attacks.


title: New York Rangers

text: The Rangers previously had a navy alternate jersey featuring the head of the Statue of Liberty with the team abbreviation (NYR) below in a futuristic script. Silver was used as an accent color, but the player names and numbers retain the same color schemes as the regular jerseys, except for a darker shade of blue. Other than a white version used in the 1998–99 season, this jersey was used from 1996 to 2007, and proved to be highly popular with fans.


title: New York Rangers

text: During the 2010–11 season, the Rangers debuted a heritage blue jersey as their new alternate uniform. The jersey featured a darker shade of blue, as well as a cream trim. Unlike the regular jerseys, the font of the alternate is in sans-serif and does not feature a dropshadow, much like the original Rangers jersey. The Rangers wore the jerseys at home on Saturdays and when they played against Original Six teams. For the 2017–18 season, the heritage jersey was retired because of the league-wide switch to the Adidas uniform format.


title: New York Rangers

text: In the 2012 NHL Winter Classic, the Rangers wore a cream jersey combining classic and current styles. A different version of the shield logo was used, while the player names were arranged in a straight line. The stripes were also lessened, giving it a minimalist, vintage look, as most Winter Classic jerseys are.


title: New York Rangers

text: For the 2014 NHL Stadium Series, the Rangers used white jerseys with the city name in navy, silver and red. In addition, they feature diagonal stripes and sleeve numbers, and enlarged numbers on the back to make them more readable to spectators. The chrome version of the shield logo is placed in the left shoulder. Like the Winter Classic sweaters, player names are in a straight position.


title: New York Rangers

text: The 2018 NHL Winter Classic saw the Rangers wear a navy jersey with a combination of elements from prior uniform designs. The striping design was inspired from their current uniforms, while the white "RANGERS" wordmark was a nod from the team's late 1920s jerseys. A white silhouette of the Rangers' shield logo contained either the abbreviation "N.Y." or the alternate captain "A" and captain "C" designations. Player names are arranged in a straight position.


title: New York Rangers

text: During the 2020–21 season, the Rangers released a "Reverse Retro" alternate uniform in collaboration with Adidas. The uniform featured the "Lady Liberty" design worn from 1996 to 2007, but with a few changes in the striping. This same design was again used for their 2022–23 "Reverse Retro" uniform, but the lighter Broadway Blue served as the base color while the lower sleeves were recolored red with white and navy stripes.


title: New York Rangers

text: "This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Rangers. For the full season-by-season history, see List of New York Rangers seasons."


title: New York Rangers

text: "Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against"


title: New York Rangers

text: The following lists the league awards which have been won by the Rangers team and its players and alumni:


title: New York Rangers

text: The New York Rangers acknowledge an affiliation with a number of inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Rangers inductees include 53 former players and nine builders of the sport. The nine individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame includes former Rangers executives, general managers, head coaches, and owners. In addition to players and builders, several broadcasters were also awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Sal Messina, a color commentator, was the first Rangers broadcaster to be awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. Other Rangers broadcasters awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award include John Davidson (awarded in 2009), and Sam Rosen (awarded in 2016).


title: New York Rangers

text: The Rangers have retired nine numbers for eleven players in their history, and the NHL retired Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 for all its member teams at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game.


title: New York Rangers

text: All single-season records verifiable from: Official Site of the National Hockey League | NHL.com and records.NHL.com


title: New York Rangers

text: These are the top-ten-point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Streptococcal pharyngitis, also known as strep throat or bacterial tonsillitis, is an infection of the back of the throat including the tonsils caused by "group A streptococcus" (GAS). Common symptoms include fever, sore throat, red tonsils (tonsilitis), and enlarged lymph nodes in the neck. A headache and nausea or vomiting may also occur. Some develop a sandpaper-like rash which is known as scarlet fever. Symptoms typically begin one to three days after exposure and last seven to ten days.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Strep throat is spread by respiratory droplets from an infected person, spread by talking, coughing or sneezing, or by touching something that has droplets on it and then touching the mouth, nose, or eyes. It may be spread directly through touching infected sores. It may also be spread by contact with skin infected with group A strep. The diagnosis is made based on the results of a rapid antigen detection test or throat culture. Some people may carry the bacteria without symptoms.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Prevention is by washing hands and not sharing eating utensils. There is no vaccine for the disease. Treatment with antibiotics is only recommended in those with a confirmed diagnosis. Those infected should stay away from other people until fever is gone and for at least 12 hours after starting treatment. Pain can be treated with paracetamol (acetaminophen) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Strep throat is a common bacterial infection in children. It is the cause of 15–40% of sore throats among children and 5–15% among adults. Cases are more common in late winter and early spring. Potential complications include rheumatic fever and peritonsillar abscess.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: The typical signs and symptoms of streptococcal pharyngitis are a sore throat, fever of greater than , tonsillar exudates (pus on the tonsils), and large cervical lymph nodes.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Other symptoms include: headache, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, muscle pain, or a scarlatiniform rash or palatal petechiae, the latter being an uncommon but highly specific finding.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Strep throat is unlikely when any of the symptoms of red eyes, hoarseness, runny nose, or mouth ulcers are present. It is also unlikely when there is no fever.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Strep throat is caused by group A β-hemolytic "Streptococcus" (GAS or "S. pyogenes"). Humans are the primary natural reservoir for group A streptococcus. Other bacteria such as non–group A β-hemolytic "streptococci" and "fusobacterium" may also cause pharyngitis. It is spread by direct, close contact with an infected person; thus crowding, as may be found in the military and schools, increases the rate of transmission. Dried bacteria in dust are not infectious, although moist bacteria on toothbrushes or similar items can persist for up to fifteen days. Contaminated food can result in outbreaks, but this is rare. Of children with no signs or symptoms, 12% carry GAS in their pharynx, and, after treatment, approximately 15% of those remain positive, and are true "carriers".


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: A number of scoring systems exist to help with diagnosis; however, their use is controversial due to insufficient accuracy. The modified Centor criteria are a set of five criteria; the total score indicates the probability of a streptococcal infection.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: A score of one may indicate no treatment or culture is needed or it may indicate the need to perform further testing if other high risk factors exist, such as a family member having the disease.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: The Infectious Disease Society of America recommends against routine antibiotic treatment and considers antibiotics only appropriate when given after a positive test. Testing is not needed in children under three as both group A strep and rheumatic fever are rare, unless a child has a sibling with the disease.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: A throat culture is the gold standard for the diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis, with a sensitivity of 90–95%. A rapid strep test (also called rapid antigen detection testing or RADT) may also be used. While the rapid strep test is quicker, it has a lower sensitivity (70%) and statistically equal specificity (98%) as a throat culture. In areas of the world where rheumatic fever is uncommon, a negative rapid strep test is sufficient to rule out the disease.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: A positive throat culture or RADT in association with symptoms establishes a positive diagnosis in those in which the diagnosis is in doubt. In adults, a negative RADT is sufficient to rule out the diagnosis. However, in children a throat culture is recommended to confirm the result. Asymptomatic individuals should not be routinely tested with a throat culture or RADT because a certain percentage of the population persistently "carries" the streptococcal bacteria in their throat without any harmful results.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: As the symptoms of streptococcal pharyngitis overlap with other conditions, it can be difficult to make the diagnosis clinically. Coughing, nasal discharge, diarrhea, and red, irritated eyes in addition to fever and sore throat are more indicative of a viral sore throat than of strep throat. The presence of marked lymph node enlargement along with sore throat, fever, and tonsillar enlargement may also occur in infectious mononucleosis. Other conditions that may present similarly include epiglottitis, Kawasaki disease, acute retroviral syndrome, Lemierre's syndrome, Ludwig's angina, peritonsillar abscess, and retropharyngeal abscess.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Tonsillectomy may be a reasonable preventive measure in those with frequent throat infections (more than three a year). However, the benefits are small and episodes typically lessen in time regardless of measures taken. Recurrent episodes of pharyngitis which test positive for GAS may also represent a person who is a chronic carrier of GAS who is getting recurrent viral infections. Treating people who have been exposed but who are without symptoms is not recommended. Treating people who are carriers of GAS is not recommended as the risk of spread and complications is low.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Untreated streptococcal pharyngitis usually resolves within a few days. Treatment with antibiotics shortens the duration of the acute illness by about 16 hours. The primary reason for treatment with antibiotics is to reduce the risk of complications such as rheumatic fever and retropharyngeal abscesses. Antibiotics prevent acute rheumatic fever if given within 9 days of the onset of symptoms.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Pain medication such as NSAIDs and paracetamol (acetaminophen) helps in the management of pain associated with strep throat. Viscous lidocaine may also be useful. While steroids may help with the pain, they are not routinely recommended. Aspirin may be used in adults but is not recommended in children due to the risk of Reye syndrome.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: The antibiotic of choice in the United States for streptococcal pharyngitis is penicillin V, due to safety, cost, and effectiveness. Amoxicillin is preferred in Europe. In India, where the risk of rheumatic fever is higher, intramuscular benzathine penicillin G is the first choice for treatment.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Appropriate antibiotics decrease the average 3–5 day duration of symptoms by about one day, and also reduce contagiousness. They are primarily prescribed to reduce rare complications such as rheumatic fever and peritonsillar abscess. The arguments in favor of antibiotic treatment should be balanced by the consideration of possible side effects, and it is reasonable to suggest that no antimicrobial treatment be given to healthy adults who have adverse reactions to medication or those at low risk of complications. Antibiotics are prescribed for strep throat at a higher rate than would be expected from how common it is.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Erythromycin and other macrolides or clindamycin are recommended for people with severe penicillin allergies. First-generation cephalosporins may be used in those with less severe allergies and some low certainty evidence suggest cephalosporins are superior to penicillin. These late-generation antibiotics show a similar effect when prescribed for 3–7 days in comparison to the standard 10-days of penicillin when used in areas of low rheumatic heart disease. Streptococcal infections may also lead to acute glomerulonephritis; however, the incidence of this side effect is not reduced by the use of antibiotics.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: The symptoms of strep throat usually improve within three to five days, irrespective of treatment. Treatment with antibiotics reduces the risk of complications and transmission; children may return to school 24 hours after antibiotics are administered. The risk of complications in adults is low. In children, acute rheumatic fever is rare in most of the developed world. It is, however, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in India, sub-Saharan Africa, and some parts of Australia.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: The economic cost of the disease in the United States in children is approximately $350 million annually.


title: Streptococcal pharyngitis

text: Pharyngitis, the broader category into which Streptococcal pharyngitis falls, is diagnosed in 11 million people annually in the United States. It is the cause of 15–40% of sore throats among children and 5–15% in adults. Cases usually occur in late winter and early spring.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke. It originally aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995 with two specials airing in 1997 and 2008 on PBS. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class social climber, Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge), who insists that her surname is pronounced "Bouquet". The show comprised five series and 44 episodes, four of which are Christmas specials. Production ended in 1995 after Routledge decided to move on to other projects. All episodes and the specials have since been released on DVD.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: The sitcom follows Hyacinth in her attempts to prove her social superiority, and to gain standing with those she considers upper class. Her attempts are constantly hampered by her lower class extended family, whom she is desperate to hide. Much of the humour comes from the conflict between Hyacinth's vision of herself and the reality of her underclass background. In each episode, she lands in a farcical situation as she battles to protect her social credibility.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: "Keeping Up Appearances" was a great success in the UK, and also captured large audiences in the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. By February 2016, it had been sold nearly a thousand times to overseas broadcasters, making it BBC Worldwide's most exported television programme. In a 2004 BBC poll it placed 12th in "Britain's Best Sitcom". In a 2001 Channel 4 poll, Hyacinth was ranked 52nd on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. The show has been syndicated on Gold and Drama in the UK, on PBS member stations in the United States and on 7TWO and 9Gem in Australia.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge) – who insists her surname is pronounced "Bouquet" (although her husband Richard has said, "It was always 'Bucket' until I met you!") – is an overbearing, social-climbing snob, originally from a lower-class background, whose main mission in life is to impress others with her refinement and pretended affluence.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: She is terrified that her background will be revealed, and goes to great lengths to hide it. Hyacinth likes to spend her days visiting stately homes (convinced she will meet and strike up a friendship with the upper class owners, especially if they are part of the landed gentry or peerage) and hosting "executive-style" candlelight suppers (with her Royal Worcester double-glazed Avignon china and Royal Doulton china with "the hand-painted periwinkles").


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: She ostentatiously brags about her possessions, including her "white slimline telephone with automatic redial", which she always answers with "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking." (Frequently she receives misdialled calls asking for a Chinese take-away, making her angry.) She speaks in an exaggerated RP-like accent with Northern undertones, while her relatives speak in broad Northern accents. Her neighbours speak in milder RP accents. When flustered, Hyacinth reverts to her native Northern accent.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Hyacinth's attempts to impress make the lives of those around her difficult; her continual efforts to improve her social position usually involve inviting her unwitting neighbours and friends to "exclusive candlelight suppers". Although Hyacinth is not deterred by the lack of response to her attempts, her friends, neighbours, and acquaintances live in fear of being invited, and usually make frantic attempts to excuse themselves.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Her husband Richard (Clive Swift) bears the brunt of the suffering. He initially worked for the council but, at the beginning of series 3, reluctantly accepts early retirement. Although he loves her with a long-suffering endurance, he is notably exasperated by her plans and her habit of making extravagant and unnecessary purchases.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Although she lives to impress others, Hyacinth regularly competes with the middle-class neighbours (whom she considers snobbish show-offs) such as Sonia Barker-Finch, Delia Wheelwright and Lydia Hawksworth (who alone of Hyacinth's rivals seems to be an actual snob, as she disdains kiwifruit as "lower middle class".) Hyacinth sometimes says things like "I haven't a snobbish bone in my body" or "I can't abide such snobbery like that" when talking about those she considers her competition.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Always hindering Hyacinth's best efforts to impress, and providing an unwelcome reminder of her less-than-refined roots, are her working-class sisters Daisy (Judy Cornwell) and Rose (Shirley Stelfox in series 1; Mary Millar thereafter), and Daisy's proudly "bone-idle" husband Onslow (Geoffrey Hughes). They, along with Hyacinth's senile father, frequently turn up inconveniently (usually in their clapped-out Ford Cortina Mk IV – which always makes a characteristic backfire when it arrives), with Hyacinth going to great lengths to avoid them (saying: "Richard, you know I love my family, but that's no reason why I should have to acknowledge them in broad daylight!"). Rose is very sexually aggressive and promiscuous, adding to Hyacinth's embarrassment.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Hyacinth's senile father frequently has flashbacks to the Second World War, and often exhibits bizarre behaviour, sometimes involving embarrassing situations with women (Onslow describes him as "barmy"). Two relatives of whom Hyacinth is not ashamed are her wealthy sister Violet (Anna Dawson) and her unseen son Sheridan. Violet frequently telephones Hyacinth for advice, allowing her to loudly announce to anyone in earshot, "It's my sister Violet – the one with a Mercedes, swimming pool/sauna and room for a pony". However, Violet's social acceptability is damaged by the eccentric behaviour of her cross-dressing, equestrian-loving turf accountant husband Bruce, whom she violently attacks because of his behaviour.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Hyacinth also tries to impress people with the intellectual prowess of her beloved son Sheridan (who actually only takes a course in needlework at a polytechnic). Hyacinth boasts about the "psychic" closeness of their relationship and how often he writes and telephones her, although he never writes and only telephones his mother to ask for money (much to the despair of Richard). Hyacinth is blissfully oblivious of the seemingly obvious hints that Sheridan, who lives with a man named Tarquin (who makes his own curtains, wears silk pyjamas, and has won prizes for embroidery), is gay. It is at one point implied that Sheridan has come out to his father.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Hyacinth's neighbour Elizabeth Warden (Josephine Tewson) is frequently invited round to the Buckets' for coffee. Though she is ordinarily calm, Elizabeth's nerves go to pieces in Hyacinth's house, causing her to smash Hyacinth's china and spill coffee and biscuits on Hyacinth's Burmese rug. She is married with a daughter away at university, yet her husband works abroad and, like Sheridan, neither character ever appears.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Elizabeth is occasionally able to "one-up" Hyacinth herself by reminding her neighbour that her daughter is at university, whilst Sheridan is studying at a mere polytechnic. Liz's brother Emmet (David Griffin) moves in with her at the beginning of series 2 after a messy divorce. Hyacinth, upon learning that Emmet is a musician, frequently and abruptly sings out-of-key at him to try to get a part in one of his productions, making him terrified of leaving the house, lest she see him ("She'll sing at me!"). Emmet's problems are made worse by Hyacinth's mistaken belief that his frightened reactions indicate that he is infatuated with her, which, in fact, could not be further from the truth.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Hyacinth frequently confronts the postman with complaints, such as having to receive mail bearing second class stamps, harassing him to the point that he will go to extreme lengths not to face her; she often forces workmen and other visitors to her home to remove their shoes before entering. Michael, the vicar of the local church (Jeremy Gittins) is also loath to face the overbearing Hyacinth, to whom he refers (to others) as "the Bucket woman". The vicar and his wife sometimes exact comic revenge on Hyacinth for her snobbishness; on one occasion, when she was one of a group of volunteer helpers at the church, the vicar's wife saw to it that Hyacinth's hand went up prematurely and assigned her the job of cleaning the church toilets.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: "Keeping Up Appearances" aired for five series, four Christmas specials, and one short "Children in Need" special from 29 October 1990 to 25 December 1995. 2 later specials were produced in 2004 and 2008 for PBS TV. The series officially ended after the episode "The Pageant", because Patricia Routledge wanted to focus on other TV and theatre work, including "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" which began airing in 1996. Clive Swift, who portrayed Richard, stated in a BBC interview that Routledge "didn't want to be remembered as simply 'Mrs. Bucket'".


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In 1997, BBC America produced a one-off, one hour TV special. It was a retrospective clipshow starring the characters of Daisy and Onslow — who were shown looking through Hyacinth's diary which had become mixed up with some photographs she had given to them. The special replayed clips from previous episodes and aired on the BBC.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In 2008, a further clipshow special was broadcast by PBS; this time only starring the character of Onslow who passed on "lessons for life" from within the framing device of a spoof Open University programme. This was the only episode not written or directed by Roy Clarke and Harold Snoad. This special was written by Michelle Street and directed by Duane Huey. Both specials have subsequently been issued on DVD. It was one of actor Geoffrey Hughes' final appearances as Onslow.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Exterior shots around Hyacinth's house were recorded at a privately owned residence at 117 Heather Road, Binley Woods, Warwickshire, east of Coventry.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Exterior shots around Daisy's and Onslow's council terrace were taken in the Stoke Aldermoor district of Coventry. Other exterior street and town shots were filmed in Leamington Spa and in various towns in Warwickshire, along with many scenes from the large town of Northampton, mainly the church hall. Some scenes were also shot in Swindon, Lydiard Park, Oxford market scenes, and Bristol,(Bedminster). One scene was shot in Oslo, Norway. One episode was filmed in Great Yarmouth, mainly in the Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Theme Park.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: The opening sequence shows Hyacinth writing an invitation to one of her trademark candlelight suppers; this invitation lists Hyacinth's address as "Waney Elm, Blossom Avenue, Fuddleton". In the same sequence, the invitation is eventually sent to an address in Eddleton. Neither town actually exists. However, there are several references to the characters being in the West Midlands throughout the series, as when Hyacinth said that she could become the "Barbara Cartland of the West Midlands Social Circuit Scene" in the episode "The Hostess". In another episode, police officers wearing West Midlands Police jumpers escort Richard home and several West Midlands Travel buses are also seen throughout the series.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Richard's car is a Rover 200-series (SD3) saloon. Early episodes show a light blue 1987 216S bearing the number plate D541 EXL, but later episodes feature a sky-blue 1989 216SE EFi model (with the same number plate except for one letter, now D541 EFL).


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Onslow drives a 1978 Ford Cortina (number plate VSD 389S) that is in poor condition and backfires loudly almost every time it starts or stops, embarrassing Hyacinth, and frequently crushing her hopes of creating a perfect impression with new people. (The DVLA website shows that this vehicle's tax was not renewed once the series finished, suggesting that it was scrapped at that point). Onslow also has the rusting carcass of a Hillman Avenger in his front garden, in which lives Onslow's dog that always barks at Hyacinth as she approaches.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Neighbour Elizabeth drives a white 1989 Austin Metro City hatchback with number plate F434 RLA (which, despite being the subject of comments from Hyacinth about its age, is newer than Richard's car).


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In March 1997, Geoffrey Hughes and Judy Cornwell reprised their roles as Onslow and Daisy for a special compilation episode recorded for broadcast in the United States on PBS. The show sees the pair introduce classic clips from the series.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In 2004, the documentary series featured an episode dedicated to "Keeping Up Appearances". Stars Clive Swift, Josephine Tewson, Judy Cornwell and David Griffin, along with writer Roy Clarke and producer/director Harold Snoad, all discussed the series. Clips from an interview with Patricia Routledge from 2002 were also included.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: The episode revealed that there were serious artistic differences between Clarke and Snoad. Specifically, Clarke refused to act as anything but a writer and rarely visited the set or location shoots, necessitating that Snoad make minor rewrites to accommodate the realities of taping. This infuriated Clarke, who disliked any tampering of his work, and Snoad thought Clarke was being unreasonable. The situation was mitigated in later series by the hiring of a script editor whose sole job was to keep Clarke apprised of Snoad's changes, and to keep Snoad informed of Clarke's opinion of them.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In early 2008, Geoffrey Hughes reprised his role as Onslow once again for a clipshow of the series; this was for broadcast on American television, and sees him teaching a credit course at the Open University, and has selected "successful relationships" as his subject matter. The special was also released on Region 1 DVD.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: When "Keeping Up Appearances" did not return, after Patricia Routledge announced that she no longer wished to play Hyacinth, Roy Clarke's proposed spin-off series was called "Mind Your Manors". The series was referenced in BBC in-house literature during 1997 and 1998, and later described by both Clarke and Geoffrey Hughes as part of a discussion of the character of Onslow in Radio 4's "Archive on 4: On Northern Men", broadcast in 2009.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: The spin-off would have seen Onslow forced to take a supposedly "easy" job tending the gardens of a large manor house estate owned by a doddery and rather forgetful old Lord. When the Lord passes away suddenly, Onslow, Daisy and Rose (who it is implied was having a fling with the Lord, causing the heart attack which led to his passing) end up 'temporarily' moving into the manor house to mind it, due to a legal dispute with the deceased Lord's estranged brother (whom Rose immediately starts lusting after), who wants the land.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: A mislaid deeds paper left by the forgetful old Lord would supposedly clarify who has rights to the estate, buried somewhere in the gardens that Onslow is left to ineptly try and keep in shape. Most of the conflict would have come from the Lord's brother and the manor's snooty neighbours, the wealthy Hyde-Whytes, who are not happy about the "commoners" who have taken up residence next door (although it later transpires that Mr. Hyde-Whyte used to know Onslow in their youth and is indebted to him after Onslow once took the fall for him to stop him being arrested). Su Pollard was approached to play the role of Miss Dorothy "Dotty" Henshaw, the Lord's eccentric and easily flustered cook / house-keeper who remains with the estate, and some preliminary location shooting was reportedly undertaken, though this may be connected with the "missing" final episode of Series 5, "The Bishop Affair". This proposed follow-up series was ultimately not commissioned, with Hughes continuing with his portrayal as Onslow in the specials listed above instead.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In 1998, the BBC released three episodes of the show: "Hyacinth tees off", "Rural Retreat", and "Sea Fever" on audio cassette. Clive Swift reprised his role as Richard recording a narrative to compensate for the lack of images.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This was released in 1993 and featured the episodes: "Iron Age Remains", "What to Wear when Yachting" and "How to Go on Holiday Without Really Trying".


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This was released in 1995 and featured the episodes: "Country Retreat", "Let There Be Light" and "Please Mind Your Head".


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In the United States, the complete series was available via streaming through Netflix and Amazon Video, but is no longer available to stream on either platform. However, it is available for streaming on BritBox. In Australia the complete series is available for streaming on Stan as of 2018.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Three books related to the series have been released in the UK. Two were written by Jonathan Rice and published by BBC Books and the other one was written by Harold Snoad (the director of Keeping Up Appearances) and was published by Book Guild Publishing.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This was first published in 1993, and is a light-hearted guide to manners, as seen through Hyacinth Bucket's eyes. It is based on the TV series' scripts and contains many black-and-white photos of scenes from the show.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This was published in 1995 and is presented in a diary format chronicling a year in Hyacinth Bucket's life, with typical comments about her relations and neighbours.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This was published in late 2009, the book includes rare photos which were taken during the filming of "Keeping Up Appearances". The book contains full plot synopses for all episodes, main cast details, filming locations for all episodes which used outside shots, and stories of some entertaining events which happened during filming.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Due to the popularity of "Keeping Up Appearances" in the United States, books about the series have also been published across the Atlantic.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This comical series guidebook was published in the late 1990s by WLIW21. It was co-authored by mother-and-daughter writers Georgene and Mary Lee Costa. It features summary descriptions of each episode, cast and crew biographies, series photographs and an interview with Harold Snoad.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Since it was written during the filming of the final series of episodes, Snoad included the co-authors of the guide as extras in the episode "The Fancy Dress Ball".


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In 2010, the television show was adapted into a play entitled "Keeping Up Appearances" that toured theatres in the UK. The cast included Rachel Bell as Hyacinth, Kim Hartman as Elizabeth, Gareth Hale as Onslow, Steven Pinder as Emmet, Debbie Arnold as Rose, David Janson (who had previously appeared in the TV show as the postman) as Mr Edward Milson, a new character created for the stage show, Christine Moore as Daisy and Sarah Whitlock as Mrs Debden.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Main character Richard Bucket, Hyacinth's husband, does not appear in the production, but is frequently referred to: Hyacinth addresses him off-stage and talks to him on the phone. The main plot of the show revolves around Emmet directing a play at the local village hall, but when Hyacinth is cast in the play's leading role disaster is in the making.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: This adaptation, directed by playwright Johnny Culver, made its American premiere in New York City in March 2015, at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Theater Fellowship/Jones Auditorium. Culver directed an additional production of this adaptation with performances on 5 August 2017 and 6 August 2017 at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Forest Hills, Queens.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: In 2015, it was announced that a prequel to the series entitled "Young Hyacinth" would be made, with original writer Roy Clarke returning to pen the script, following a 19-year-old Hyacinth Bucket during the early postwar years and set some forty years before the events of "Keeping Up Appearances". The cast were announced on 11 April 2016. Hyacinth was played by Kerry Howard; Rose by Katie Redford; Daisy by Katherine Pearce; Violet by Tamla Kari and Daddy by Mark Addy. It was broadcast on BBC One on 2 September 2016.


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: The prequel sees Hyacinth working as a maid and attempting to manage her family so they appear well above their means. In the special, Hyacinth is in a relationship with a Mr. William Hitchcock, whom Hyacinth forces to dress up and wear a hat when they walk. The special ends with her drunken Daddy falling into the canal, which Hyacinth's employers see, causing her great embarrassment. However, she blames Daddy's behaviour on "an old war injury".


title: Keeping Up Appearances

text: Approximately 4.14 million viewers watched the show within seven days of its broadcast, making it the 22nd most watched BBC One show for the week ending 4 September. A total of 4.39 million viewers watched the show within 28 days of its initial broadcast.


title: Mithraism

text: Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity ("yazata") Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linked to a new and distinctive imagery, with the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice debated. The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from about the 1st to the 4th-century CE.


title: Mithraism

text: Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves "syndexioi", those "united by the handshake". They met in underground temples, now called "mithraea" (singular "mithraeum"), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its center in Rome, and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far as Roman Dacia, as far north as Roman Britain, and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.


title: Mithraism

text: Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity. In the 4th century, Mithraists faced persecution from Christians, and the religion was subsequently suppressed and eliminated in the Roman empire by the end of the century.


title: Mithraism

text: Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments. It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in the city of Rome. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive; limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.


title: Mithraism

text: The term "Mithraism" is a modern convention. Writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as "Mithraic mysteries", "mysteries of Mithras" or "mysteries of the Persians". Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as "Roman Mithraism" or "Western Mithraism" to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra.


title: Mithraism

text: The name "Mithras" (Latin, equivalent to Greek ""Μίθρας"") is a form of "Mithra", the name of an old, pre-Zoroastrian, and, later on, Zoroastrian, god — a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont. An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century BCE work by Xenophon, the "Cyropaedia", which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.


title: Mithraism

text: The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of inflection. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". Porphyry's Greek text "DeAbstinentia" ("Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων"), has a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word.


title: Mithraism

text: Iranian "Mithra" and Sanskrit "Mitra" are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word "mitrás", meaning "contract, agreement, covenant".


title: Mithraism

text: Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra/Mithra/Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions. On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century BCE, and to whom an old name was applied.


title: Mithraism

text: Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, nonetheless "as the name "Mithras" alone shows, this content was of some importance".


title: Mithraism

text: Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material.


title: Mithraism

text: Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. But the image of bull-slaying (tauroctony) is always in the central niche. Textual sources for a reconstruction of the theology behind this iconography are very rare. (See section Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene below.)


title: Mithraism

text: The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "... there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull."


title: Mithraism

text: In every mithraeum the centerpiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, an act called the tauroctony. The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. One or three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The bull was often white. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank. The two torch-bearers are on either side are dressed like Mithras: "Cautes" with his torch pointing up, and "Cautopates" with his torch pointing down. Sometimes Cautes and Cautopates carry shepherds' crooks instead of torches.


title: Mithraism

text: The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength. Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a quadriga. A ray of light often reaches down to touch Mithras. At the top right is Luna, with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a biga.


title: Mithraism

text: In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with Sol and sharing a meal of bull-parts with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot. In some instances, as is the case in the stucco icon at Santa Prisca Mithraeum in Rome, the god is shown heroically nude. Some of these reliefs were constructed so that they could be turned on an axis. On the back side was another, more elaborate feasting scene. This indicates that the bull killing scene was used in the first part of the celebration, then the relief was turned, and the second scene was used in the second part of the celebration. Besides the main cult icon, a number of mithraea had several secondary tauroctonies, and some small portable versions, probably meant for private devotion, have also been found.


title: Mithraism

text: The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene. The banquet scene features Mithras and Sol Invictus banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter. Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: The blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.


title: Mithraism

text: Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap.


title: Mithraism

text: In some variations, he is shown coming out of the rock as a child, and in one holds a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of the water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, eagles, other birds, lions, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as Oceanus, the water god, and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, Luna, Sol, and Saturn also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger or short sword to Mithras, used later in the tauroctony.


title: Mithraism

text: In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds.


title: Mithraism

text: On some occasions, an amphora is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.


title: Mithraism

text: One of the most characteristic and poorly-understood features of the Mysteries is the naked lion-headed figure often found in Mithraic temples, named by the modern scholars with descriptive terms such as "leontocephaline" (lion-headed) or "leontocephalus" (lion-head).


title: Mithraism

text: His body is a naked man's, entwined by a serpent (or two serpents, like a caduceus), with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open. He is usually represented as having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key), and a sceptre in his hand. Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross. On the figure from the Ostia Antica Mithraeum (left, CIMRM 312), the four wings carry the symbols of the four seasons, and a thunderbolt is engraved on his chest. At the base of the statue are the hammer and tongs of Vulcan and Mercury's cock and wand (caduceus). A rare variation of the same figure is also found with a human head and a lion's head emerging from its chest.


title: Mithraism

text: Although animal-headed figures are prevalent in contemporary Egyptian and Gnostic mythological representations, no exact parallel to the Mithraic leontocephaline figure has been found.


title: Mithraism

text: Based on dedicatory inscriptions for altars, the name of the figure is conjectured to be "Arimanius", a Latinized form of the name "Ahriman" – a demonic figure in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have been a god in the Mithraic cult as seen, for example, in images from the "Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae" (CIMRM) such as CIMRM 222 from Ostia, CIMRM 369 from Rome, and CIMRM 1773 and 1775 from Pannonia.


title: Mithraism

text: Some scholars identify the lion-man as Aion, or Zurvan, or Cronus, or Chronos, while others assert that it is a version of the Zoroastrian Ahriman or Vedic Aryaman.


title: Mithraism

text: Although the exact identity of the lion-headed figure is debated by scholars, it is largely agreed that the god is associated with time and seasonal change.


title: Mithraism

text: According to M.J. Vermaseren and C.C. van Essen, the Mithraic New Year and the birthday of Mithras was on December 25. Beck disagreed strongly. Clauss states:


title: Mithraism

text: Mithraic initiates were required to swear an oath of secrecy and dedication, and some grade rituals involved the recital of a catechism, wherein the initiate was asked a series of questions pertaining to the initiation symbolism and had to reply with specific answers. An example of such a catechism, apparently pertaining to the Leo grade, was discovered in a fragmentary Egyptian papyrus (Papyrus Berolinensis 21196), and reads:


title: Mithraism

text: Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives; with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont. The walls of mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts.


title: Mithraism

text: Nevertheless, it is clear from the archaeology of numerous mithraea that most rituals were associated with feasting – as eating utensils and food residues are almost invariably found. These tend to include both animal bones and also very large quantities of fruit residues. The presence of large amounts of cherry-stones in particular would tend to confirm mid-summer (late June, early July) as a season especially associated with Mithraic festivities. The Virunum "album", in the form of an inscribed bronze plaque, records a Mithraic festival of commemoration as taking place on 26 June 184. Beck argues that religious celebrations on this date are indicative of special significance being given to the summer solstice; but this time of the year coincides with ancient recognition of the solar maximum at midsummer, whilst iconographically identical holidays such as Litha, Saint John's Eve, and Jāņi are observed also.


title: Mithraism

text: For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the mithraeumtypically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men. Counterpart dining rooms, or "triclinia", were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or "collegia". Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the "collegia" did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman "collegia" tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed. The size of the mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.


title: Mithraism

text: Each mithraeum had several altars at the further end, underneath the representation of the tauroctony, and also commonly contained considerable numbers of subsidiary altars, both in the main mithraeum chamber and in the ante-chamber or narthex. These altars, which are of the standard Roman pattern, each carry a named dedicatory inscription from a particular initiate, who dedicated the altar to Mithras "in fulfillment of his vow", in gratitude for favours received. Burned residues of animal entrails are commonly found on the main altars, indicating regular sacrificial use, though mithraea do not commonly appear to have been provided with facilities for ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals (a highly specialised function in Roman religion), and it may be presumed that a mithraeum would have made arrangements for this service to be provided for them in co-operation with the professional "victimarius" of the civic cult. Prayers were addressed to the Sun three times a day, and Sunday was especially sacred.


title: Mithraism

text: It is doubtful whether Mithraism had a monolithic and internally consistent doctrine. It may have varied from location to location. The iconography is relatively coherent. It had no predominant sanctuary or cultic centre; and, although each mithraeum had its own officers and functionaries, there was no central supervisory authority. In some mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos, wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls, but no named Mithraic sages are known, nor does any reference give the title of any Mithraic scripture or teaching. It is known that initiates could transfer with their grades from one Mithraeum to another.


title: Mithraism

text: Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier, while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria. According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithraic rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum. Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.


title: Mithraism

text: For the most part, mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure. There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as "speleum" or "antrum" (cave), "crypta" (underground hallway or corridor), "fanum" (sacred or holy place), or even "templum" (a temple or a sacred space).


title: Mithraism

text: In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view, through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard—potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to "colitores" or non-initiated worshippers. Mithraea were the antithesis of this.


title: Mithraism

text: In the Suda under the entry "Mithras", it states that "No one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests." Gregory Nazianzen refers to the "tests in the mysteries of Mithras".


title: Mithraism

text: There were seven grades of initiation into Mithraism, which are listed by St. Jerome. Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Mithraeum of Felicissimus, Ostia Antica depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods. In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were:


title: Mithraism

text: Elsewhere, as at Dura-Europos, Mithraic graffiti survive giving membership lists, in which initiates of a mithraeum are named with their Mithraic grades. At Virunum, the membership list or "album sacratorum" was maintained as an inscribed plaque, updated year by year as new members were initiated. By cross-referencing these lists it is possible to track some initiates from one mithraeum to another; and also speculatively to identify Mithraic initiates with persons on other contemporary lists such as military service rolls and lists of devotees of non-Mithraic religious sanctuaries. Names of initiates are also found in the dedication inscriptions of altars and other cult objects. Clauss noted in 1990 that overall, only about 14% of Mithraic names inscribed before 250 CE identify the initiate's grade – and hence questioned the traditional view that all initiates belonged to one of the seven grades. Clauss argues that the grades represented a distinct class of priests, "sacerdotes". Gordon maintains the former theory of Merkelbach and others, especially noting such examples as Dura where all names are associated with a Mithraic grade. Some scholars maintain that practice may have differed over time, or from one Mithraeum to another.


title: Mithraism

text: The highest grade, "pater", is by far the most common one found on dedications and inscriptions – and it would appear not to have been unusual for a mithraeum to have several men with this grade. The form "pater patrum" (father of fathers) is often found, which appears to indicate the "pater" with primary status. There are several examples of persons, commonly those of higher social status, joining a mithraeum with the status "pater" – especially in Rome during the 'pagan revival' of the 4th century. It has been suggested that some mithraea may have awarded honorary "pater" status to sympathetic dignitaries.


title: Mithraism

text: The initiate into each grade appears to have been required to undertake a specific ordeal or test, involving exposure to heat, cold or threatened peril. An 'ordeal pit', dating to the early 3rd century, has been identified in the mithraeum at Carrawburgh. Accounts of the cruelty of the emperor Commodus describes his amusing himself by enacting Mithraic initiation ordeals in homicidal form. By the later 3rd century, the enacted trials appear to have been abated in rigor, as 'ordeal pits' were floored over.


title: Mithraism

text: Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the "pater", just as Mithras and Sol shook hands. The initiates were thus referred to as "syndexioi" (those united by the handshake). The term is used in an inscription by Proficentius and derided by Firmicus Maternus in "De errore profanarum religionum", a 4th century Christian work attacking paganism. In ancient Iran, taking the right hand was the traditional way of concluding a treaty or signifying some solemn understanding between two parties.


title: Mithraism

text: Activities of the most prominent deities in Mithraic scenes, Sol and Mithras, were imitated in rituals by the two most senior officers in the cult's hierarchy, the "Pater" and the "Heliodromus". The initiates held a sacramental banquet, replicating the feast of Mithras and Sol.


title: Mithraism

text: Reliefs on a cup found in Mainz appear to depict a Mithraic initiation. On the cup, the initiate is depicted as being led into a location where a "Pater" would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the initiate is a mystagogue, who explains the symbolism and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the 'Water Miracle', in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water.


title: Mithraism

text: Roger Beck has hypothesized a third processional Mithraic ritual, based on the Mainz cup and Porphyrys. This scene, called 'Procession of the Sun-Runner', shows the "Heliodromus" escorted by two figures representing Cautes and Cautopates (see below) and preceded by an initiate of the grade "Miles" leading a ritual enactment of the solar journey around the mithraeum, which was intended to represent the cosmos.


title: Mithraism

text: Consequently, it has been argued that most Mithraic rituals involved a re-enactment by the initiates of episodes in the Mithras narrative, a narrative whose main elements were: birth from the rock, striking water from stone with an arrow shot, the killing of the bull, Sol's submission to Mithras, Mithras and Sol feasting on the bull, the ascent of Mithras to heaven in a chariot. A noticeable feature of this narrative (and of its regular depiction in surviving sets of relief carvings) is the absence of female personages (the sole exception being Luna watching the


title: Mithraism

text: Only male names appear in surviving inscribed membership lists. Historians including Cumont and Richard Gordon have concluded that the cult was for men only.


title: Mithraism

text: The ancient scholar Porphyry refers to female initiates in Mithraic rites. The early 20th-century historian A.S. Geden wrote that this may be due to a misunderstanding. According to Geden, while the participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, the predominant military influence in Mithraism makes it unlikely in this instance. It has recently been suggested by David Jonathan that "Women were involved with Mithraic groups in at least some locations of the empire."


title: Mithraism

text: Soldiers were strongly represented amongst Mithraists, and also merchants, customs officials and minor bureaucrats. Few, if any, initiates came from leading aristocratic or senatorial families until the 'pagan revival' of the mid-4th century; but there were always considerable numbers of freedmen and slaves.


title: Mithraism

text: Clauss suggests that a statement by Porphyry, that people initiated into the Lion grade must keep their hands pure from everything that brings pain and harm and is impure, means that moral demands were made upon members of congregations. A passage in the "Caesares" of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras". Tertullian, in his treatise "On the Military Crown" records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets on the basis of the Mithraic initiation ritual that included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras".


title: Mithraism

text: According to the archaeologist Maarten Vermaseren, 1st century BCE evidence from Commagene demonstrates the "reverence paid to Mithras" but does not refer to "the mysteries". In the colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I (69–34 BCE) at Mount Nemrut, Mithras is shown beardless, wearing a Phrygian cap (or the similar headdress, Persian tiara), in Iranian (Parthian) clothing, and was originally seated on a throne alongside other deities and the king himself. On the back of the thrones there is an inscription in Greek, which includes the name Apollo Mithras Helios in the genitive case (Ἀπόλλωνος Μίθρου Ἡλίου). Vermaseren also reports about a Mithras cult in 3rd century BCE. Fayum. R.D. Barnett has argued that the royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni from . depicts a tauroctonous Mithras.


title: Mithraism

text: The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues. According to Clauss, mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century CE. According to Ulansey, the earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st century BCE: The historian Plutarch says that in 67 BCE the pirates of Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras. According to Daniels, whether any of this relates to the origins of the mysteries is unclear. The unique underground temples or mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century CE.


title: Mithraism

text: Inscriptions and monuments related to the Mithraic Mysteries are catalogued in a two volume work by Maarten J. Vermaseren, the "Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae" (or CIMRM). The earliest monument showing Mithras slaying the bull is thought to be CIMRM 593, found in Rome. There is no date, but the inscription tells us that it was dedicated by a certain Alcimus, steward of T. Claudius Livianus. Vermaseren and Gordon believe that this Livianus is a certain Livianus who was commander of the Praetorian guard in 101 CE, which would give an earliest date of 98–99 CE.


title: Mithraism

text: Five small terracotta plaques of a figure holding a knife over a bull have been excavated near Kerch in the Crimea, dated by Beskow and Clauss to the second half of the 1st century BCE, and by Beck to 50 BCE–50 CE. These may be the earliest tauroctonies, if they are accepted to be a depiction of Mithras. The bull-slaying figure wears a Phrygian cap, but is described by Beck and Beskow as otherwise unlike standard depictions of the tauroctony. Another reason for not connecting these artifacts with the Mithraic Mysteries is that the first of these plaques was found in a woman's tomb.


title: Mithraism

text: An altar or block from near SS. Pietro e Marcellino on the Esquiline in Rome was inscribed with a bilingual inscription by an Imperial freedman named T. Flavius Hyginus, probably between 80 and 100 CE. It is dedicated to "Sol Invictus Mithras".


title: Mithraism

text: CIMRM 2268 is a broken base or altar from Novae/Steklen in Moesia Inferior, dated 100 CE, showing Cautes and Cautopates.


title: Mithraism

text: Other early archaeology includes the Greek inscription from Venosia by Sagaris "actor" probably from 100–150 CE; the Sidon "cippus" dedicated by Theodotus priest of Mithras to Asclepius, 140–141 CE; and the earliest military inscription, by C. Sacidius Barbarus, centurion of XV Apollinaris, from the bank of the Danube at Carnuntum, probably before 114 CE.


title: Mithraism

text: According to C.M.Daniels, the Carnuntum inscription is the earliest Mithraic dedication from the Danube region, which along with Italy is one of the two regions where Mithraism first struck root. The earliest dateable mithraeum outside Rome dates from 148 CE. The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima is the only one in Palestine and the date is inferred.


title: Mithraism

text: According to Roger Beck, the attested locations of the Roman cult in the earliest phase () are as follows:


title: Mithraism

text: According to Boyce, the earliest literary references to the mysteries are by the Latin poet Statius, about 80 CE, and Plutarch (c. 100 CE).


title: Mithraism

text: The Thebaid () an epic poem by Statius, pictures Mithras in a cave, wrestling with something that has horns. The context is a prayer to the god Phoebus. The cave is described as "persei", which in this context is usually translated "Persian". According to the translator J.H. Mozley it literally means "Persean", referring to "Perses", the son of Perseus and Andromeda, this Perses being the ancestor of the Persians according to Greek legend.


title: Mithraism

text: Writing in approximately 145 CE, the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr charges the cult of Mithras with imitating the Christian communion,


title: Mithraism

text: The Greek biographer Plutarch (46–127 CE) says that "secret mysteries ... of Mithras" were practiced by the pirates of Cilicia, the coastal province in the southeast of Anatolia, who were active in the 1st century BCE: "They likewise offered strange sacrifices; those of Olympus I mean; and they celebrated certain secret mysteries, among which those of Mithras continue to this day, being originally instituted by them." He mentions that the pirates were especially active during the Mithridatic wars (between the Roman Republic and King Mithridates VI of Pontus) in which they supported the king. The association between Mithridates and the pirates is also mentioned by the ancient historian Appian. The 4th century commentary on Vergil by Servius says that Pompey settled some of these pirates in Calabria in southern Italy.


title: Mithraism

text: The historian Dio Cassius (2nd to 3rd century CE) tells how the name of Mithras was spoken during the state visit to Rome of Tiridates I of Armenia, during the reign of Nero. (Tiridates was the son of Vonones II of Parthia, and his coronation by Nero in 66 CE confirmed the end of a war between Parthia and Rome.) Dio Cassius writes that Tiridates, as he was about to receive his crown, told the Roman emperor that he revered him "as Mithras". Roger Beck thinks it possible that this episode contributed to the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.


title: Mithraism

text: The philosopher Porphyry (3rd–4th century CE) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work "De antro nympharum" (The Cave of the Nymphs). Citing Eubulus as his source, Porphyry writes that the original temple of Mithras was a natural cave, containing fountains, which Zoroaster found in the mountains of Persia. To Zoroaster, this cave was an image of the whole world, so he consecrated it to Mithras, the creator of the world. Later in the same work, Porphyry links Mithras and the bull with planets and star-signs: Mithras himself is associated with the sign of Aries and the planet Mars, while the bull is associated with Venus.


title: Mithraism

text: Porphyry is writing close to the demise of the cult, and Robert Turcan has challenged the idea that Porphyry's statements about Mithraism are accurate. His case is that far from representing what Mithraists believed, they are merely representations by the Neoplatonists of what it suited them in the late 4th century to read into the mysteries. Merkelbach and Beck believed Porphyry's work "is in fact thoroughly coloured with the doctrines of the Mysteries". Beck holds that classical scholars have neglected Porphyry's evidence and have taken an unnecessarily skeptical view of Porphyry. According to Beck, Porphyry's "De antro" is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithraic Mysteries and how that intent was realized. David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism."


title: Mithraism

text: In later antiquity, the Greek name of Mithras ("Μίθρας") occurs in the text known as the "Mithras Liturgy", a part of the "Paris Greek Magical Papyrus" (Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Suppl. gr. 574); here Mithras is given the epithet "the great god", and is identified with the sun god Helios. There have been different views among scholars as to whether this text is an expression of Mithraism as such. Franz Cumont argued that it isn't; Marvin Meyer thinks it is; while Hans Dieter Betz sees it as a synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mithraic traditions.


title: Mithraism

text: Scholarship on Mithras begins with Franz Cumont, who published a two volume collection of source texts and images of monuments in French in 1894–1900, "Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra" [French: "Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra"]. An English translation of part of this work was published in 1903, with the title "The Mysteries of Mithra". Cumont's hypothesis, as the author summarizes it in the first 32 pages of his book, was that the Roman religion was "the Roman form of Mazdaism", the Persian state religion, disseminated from the East. He identified the ancient Aryan deity who appears in Persian literature as Mithras with the Hindu god Mitra of the Vedic hymns. According to Cumont, the god Mithra came to Rome "accompanied by a large representation of the Mazdean Pantheon". Cumont considers that while the tradition "underwent some modification in the Occident ... the alterations that it suffered were largely superficial".


title: Mithraism

text: Cumont's theories came in for severe criticism from John R. Hinnells and R.L. Gordon at the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies held in 1971. John Hinnells was unwilling to reject entirely the idea of Iranian origin, but wrote: "we must now conclude that his reconstruction simply will not stand. It receives no support from the Iranian material and is in fact in conflict with the ideas of that tradition as they are represented in the extant texts. Above all, it is a theoretical reconstruction which does not accord with the actual Roman iconography." He discussed Cumont's reconstruction of the bull-slaying scene and stated "that the portrayal of Mithras given by Cumont is not merely unsupported by Iranian texts but is actually in serious conflict with known Iranian theology." Another paper by R.L. Gordon argued that Cumont severely distorted the available evidence by forcing the material to conform to his predetermined model of Zoroastrian origins. Gordon suggested that the theory of Persian origins was completely invalid and that the Mithraic mysteries in the West were an entirely new creation.


title: Mithraism

text: A similar view has been expressed by Luther H. Martin: "Apart from the name of the god himself, in other words, Mithraism seems to have developed largely in and is, therefore, best understood from the context of Roman culture."


title: Mithraism

text: According to Hopfe, "All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra/Mitra figure of ancient Aryan religion." Reporting on the Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, 1975, Ugo Bianchi says that although he welcomes "the tendency to question in historical terms the relations between Eastern and Western Mithraism", it "should not mean obliterating what was clear to the Romans themselves, that Mithras was a 'Persian' (in wider perspective: an Indo-Iranian) god."


title: Mithraism

text: Boyce wrote, "no satisfactory evidence has yet been adduced to show that, before Zoroaster, the concept of a supreme god existed among the Iranians, or that among them Mithra – or any other divinity – ever enjoyed a separate cult of his or her own outside either their ancient or their Zoroastrian pantheons." She also said that although recent studies have minimized the Iranizing aspects of the self-consciously Persian religion "at least in the form which it attained under the Roman Empire", the name "Mithras" is enough to show "that this aspect is of some importance". She also says that "the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary references to them."


title: Mithraism

text: Beck tells us that since the 1970s scholars have generally rejected Cumont, but adds that recent theories about how Zoroastrianism was during the period BCE now make some new form of Cumont's east-west transfer possible. He says that


title: Mithraism

text: ... an indubitable residuum of things Persian in the Mysteries and a better knowledge of what constituted actual Mazdaism have allowed modern scholars to postulate for Roman Mithraism a continuing Iranian theology. This indeed is the main line of Mithraic scholarship, the Cumontian model which subsequent scholars accept, modify, or reject. For the transmission of Iranian doctrine from East to West, Cumont postulated a plausible, if hypothetical, intermediary: the Magusaeans of the Iranian diaspora in Anatolia. More problematic – and never properly addressed by Cumont or his successors – is how real-life Roman Mithraists subsequently maintained a quite complex and sophisticated Iranian theology behind an occidental facade. Other than the images at Dura of the two 'magi' with scrolls, there is no direct and explicit evidence for the carriers of such doctrines. ... Up to a point, Cumont's Iranian paradigm, especially in Turcan's modified form, is certainly plausible.


title: Mithraism

text: He also says that "the old Cumontian model of formation in, and diffusion from, Anatolia ... is by no means dead – nor should it be."


title: Mithraism

text: Beck theorizes that the cult was created in Rome, by a single founder who had some knowledge of both Greek and Oriental religion, but suggests that some of the ideas used may have passed through the Hellenistic kingdoms. He observes that "Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios" was among the gods of the syncretic Greco-Armenian-Iranian royal cult at Nemrut, founded by Antiochus I of Commagene in the mid 1st century BCE. While proposing the theory, Beck says that his scenario may be regarded as Cumontian in two ways. Firstly, because it looks again at Anatolia and Anatolians, and more importantly, because it hews back to the methodology first used by Cumont.


title: Mithraism

text: Merkelbach suggests that its mysteries were essentially created by a particular person or persons and created in a specific place, the city of Rome, by someone from an eastern province or border state who knew the Iranian myths in detail, which he wove into his new grades of initiation; but that he must have been Greek and Greek-speaking because he incorporated elements of Greek Platonism into it. The myths, he suggests, were probably created in the milieu of the imperial bureaucracy, and for its members. Clauss tends to agree. Beck calls this "the most likely scenario" and states "Until now, Mithraism has generally been treated as if it somehow evolved Topsy-like from its Iranian precursor – a most implausible scenario once it is stated explicitly."


title: Mithraism

text: Archaeologist Lewis M. Hopfe notes that there are only three mithraea in Roman Syria, in contrast to further west. He writes: "Archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome ... the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants."


title: Mithraism

text: Taking a different view from other modern scholars, Ulansey argues that the Mithraic mysteries began in the Greco-Roman world as a religious response to the discovery by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus of the astronomical phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes – a discovery that amounted to discovering that the entire cosmos was moving in a hitherto unknown way. This new cosmic motion, he suggests, was seen by the founders of Mithraism as indicating the existence of a powerful new god capable of shifting the cosmic spheres and thereby controlling the universe.


title: Mithraism

text: A. D. H. Bivar, L. A. Campbell, and G. Widengren have variously argued that Roman Mithraism represents a continuation of some form of Iranian Mithra worship. More recently, Parvaneh Pourshariati has made similar claims.


title: Mithraism

text: According to Antonia Tripolitis, Roman Mithraism originated in Vedic India and picked up many features of the cultures which it encountered in its westward journey.


title: Mithraism

text: The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have happened quite quickly, late in the reign of Antoninus Pius (b. 121 CE, d. 161 CE) and under Marcus Aurelius. By this time all the key elements of the mysteries were in place.


title: Mithraism

text: Mithraism reached the apogee of its popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, spreading at an "astonishing" rate at the same period when the worship of Sol Invictus was incorporated into the state-sponsored cults. At this period a certain Pallas devoted a monograph to Mithras, and a little later Euboulus wrote a "History of Mithras", although both works are now lost. According to the 4th century Historia Augusta, the emperor Commodus participated in its mysteries but it never became one of the state cults.


title: Mithraism

text: The religion and its followers faced persecution in the 4th century from Christianization, and Mithraism came to an end at some point between its last decade and the 5th century. Ulansey states that "Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism." According to Speidel, Christians fought fiercely with this feared enemy and suppressed it during the late 4thcentury. Mithraic sanctuaries were destroyed and religion was no longer a matter of personal choice. According to Luther H. Martin, Roman Mithraism came to an end with the anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor Theodosius during the last decade of the 4thcentury.


title: Mithraism

text: Clauss states that inscriptions show Mithras as one of the cults listed on inscriptions by Roman senators who had not converted to Christianity, as part of the "pagan revival" among the elite in the second half of the 4th century. Beck states that "Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire." Archaeological evidence indicates the continuance of the cult of Mithras up until the end of the 4thcentury. In particular, large numbers of votive coins deposited by worshippers have been recovered at the Mithraeum at Pons Sarravi (Sarrebourg) in Gallia Belgica, in a series that runs from Gallienus (r. 253–268) to Theodosius I (r. 379–395). These were scattered over the floor when the mithraeum was destroyed, as Christians apparently regarded the coins as polluted; therefore, providing reliable dates for the functioning of the mithraeum up until near the end of the century.


title: Mithraism

text: Franz Cumont states that Mithraism may have survived in certain remote cantons of the Alps and Vosges into the 5thcentury. According to Mark Humphries, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects in some areas suggests that precautions were being taken against Christian attacks. In areas like the Rhine frontier, barbarian invasions may have also played a role in the end of Mithraism.


title: Mithraism

text: At some of the mithraeums that have been found below churches, such as the Santa Prisca Mithraeum and the San Clemente Mithraeum, the ground plan of the church above was made in a way to symbolize Christianity's domination of Mithraism. The cult disappeared earlier than that of Isis. Isis was still remembered in the Middle Ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in late antiquity.


title: Mithraism

text: "John, the Lord Chamberlain", a 1999–2014 series of historical mystery novels, depicts a secret Mithraist community still active in Justinian's court (r. 527–567), but there is no historical evidence for such a late survival of the religion.


title: Mithraism

text: According to Cumont, the imagery of the tauroctony was a Graeco-Roman representation of an event in Zoroastrian cosmogony described in a 9th-century Zoroastrian text, the Bundahishn. In this text the evil spirit Ahriman (not Mithra) slays the primordial creature Gavaevodata, which is represented as a bovine. Cumont held that a version of the myth must have existed in which Mithras, not Ahriman, killed the bovine. But according to Hinnells, no such variant of the myth is known, and that this is merely speculation: "In no known Iranian text [either Zoroastrian or otherwise] does Mithra slay a bull."


title: Mithraism

text: David Ulansey finds astronomical evidence from the mithraeum itself. He reminds us that the Platonic writer Porphyry wrote in the 3rd century CE that the cave-like temple Mithraea depicted "an image of the world" and that Zoroaster consecrated a cave resembling the world fabricated by Mithras. The ceiling of the Caesarea Maritima Mithraeum retains traces of blue paint, which may mean the ceiling was painted to depict the sky and the stars.


title: Mithraism

text: Several celestial identities for the Tauroctonous Mithras (TM) himself have been proposed. Beck summarizes them in the table below.


title: Mithraism

text: Ulansey has proposed that Mithras seems to have been derived from the constellation of Perseus, which is positioned just above Taurus in the night sky. He sees iconographic and mythological parallels between the two figures: both are young heroes, carry a dagger, and wear a Phrygian cap. He also mentions the similarity of the image of Perseus killing the Gorgon and the tauroctony, both figures being associated with caverns and both having connections to Persia as further evidence.


title: Mithraism

text: Michael Speidel associates Mithras with the constellation of Orion because of the proximity to Taurus, and the consistent nature of the depiction of the figure as having wide shoulders, a garment flared at the hem, and narrowed at the waist with a belt, thus taking on the form of the constellation.


title: Mithraism

text: Beck has criticized Speidel and Ulansey of adherence to a literal cartographic logic, describing their theories as a "will-o'-the-wisp" that "lured them down a false trail". He argues that a literal reading of the tauroctony as a star chart raises two major problems: it is difficult to find a constellation counterpart for Mithras himself (despite efforts by Speidel and Ulansey) and that, unlike in a star chart, each feature of the tauroctony might have more than a single counterpart. Rather than seeing Mithras as a constellation, Beck argues that Mithras is the prime traveller on the celestial stage (represented by the other symbols of the scene), the Unconquered Sun moving through the constellations. But again, Meyer holds that the Mithras Liturgy reflects the world of Mithraism and may be a confirmation for Ulansey's theory of Mithras being held responsible for the precession of equinoxes.


title: Mithraism

text: The cult of Mithras was part of the syncretic nature of ancient Roman religion. Almost all Mithraea contain statues dedicated to gods of other cults, and it is common to find inscriptions dedicated to Mithras in other sanctuaries, especially those of Jupiter Dolichenus. Mithraism was not an alternative to Rome's other traditional religions, but was one of many forms of religious practice, and many Mithraic initiates can also be found participating in the civic religion, and as initiates of other mystery cults.


title: Mithraism

text: Early Christian apologists noted similarities between Mithraic and Christian rituals, but nonetheless took an extremely negative view of Mithraism: they interpreted Mithraic rituals as evil copies of Christian ones. For instance, Tertullian wrote that as a prelude to the Mithraic initiation ceremony, the initiate was given a ritual bath and at the end of the ceremony, received a mark on the forehead. He described these rites as a diabolical counterfeit of the baptism and chrismation of Christians. Justin Martyr contrasted Mithraic initiation communion with the Eucharist:


title: Mithraism

text: Ernest Renan suggested in 1882 that, under different circumstances, Mithraism might have risen to the prominence of modern-day Christianity. Renan wrote: "If the growth of Christianity had been arrested by some mortal malady, the world would have been Mithraic". This theory has since been contested. Leonard Boyle wrote in 1987 that "too much ... has been made of the 'threat' of Mithraism to Christianity", pointing out that there are only fifty known mithraea in the entire city of Rome. J. Alvar Ezquerra holds that since the two religions did not share similar aims, there was never any real threat of Mithraism taking over the Roman world. Mithraism had backing from the Roman aristocracy during a time when their conservative values were seen as under attack during the rising tides of Christianity.


title: Mithraism

text: According to Mary Boyce, Mithraism was a potent enemy for Christianity in the West, though she is sceptical about its hold in the East. Filippo Coarelli (1979) has tabulated forty actual or possible Mithraea and estimated that Rome would have had "not less than 680–690" mithraea. Lewis M. Hopfe states that more than 400 Mithraic sites have been found. These sites are spread all over the Roman empire from places as far as Dura Europos in the east, and England in the west. He, too, says that Mithraism may have been a rival of Christianity. David Ulansey thinks Renan's statement "somewhat exaggerated", but does consider Mithraism "one of Christianity's major competitors in the Roman Empire". Ulansey sees the study of Mithraism as important for understanding "the cultural matrix out of which the Christian religion came to birth".


title: Julie Benz

text: Julie Benz (born May 1, 1972) l is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Darla on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" (1997–2004), and as Rita Bennett on "Dexter" (2006–2010), for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress and the 2009 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Julie Benz

text: Benz has also starred in the television series "Roswell" (1999–2000), "Desperate Housewives" (2010), "No Ordinary Family" (2010–2011), "A Gifted Man" (2011–2012), "Defiance" (2013–2015), "Hawaii Five-0" (2015–2017), "Training Day" (2017) and "Love, Victor" (2021).


title: Julie Benz

text: Her film credits include "Jawbreaker" (1999), "The Brothers" (2001), "Rambo" (2008), "Saw V" (2008), "" (2008), and "" (2009).


title: Julie Benz

text: Benz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, grew up in Murrysville, and graduated from Franklin Regional High School. Her mother, Joanne Marie (née Seemiller), was a figure skater, and her father, George Benz, Jr., is a surgeon in Pittsburgh. The family settled in nearby Murrysville when Benz was two, and she started ice skating when she was three. She competed in the 1988 U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing with her skating partner David Schilling, and finished in 13th place. When Benz was 14, she suffered a stress fracture in her right leg and had to take time off.