He also calls attention to topics needing further investigation, perhaps at a Toronto conference in 1996, which would mark the centenary of Cumont's ground-breaking Textes et Monuments. The reader will turn from this paper to the others with a firm basis on which to judge the degree of probability of various hypotheses. Two papers offer helpful discussions of problems related to language and terminology. Included also is a discussion of the arcane significance of labelling cult-furniture. Russell calls attention to Armenian associations for important Mithraic myths, especially the petrogeny, and suggests hidden allusions to Mithraic lore in the poetry of the Armenian St. Nerses as late as the 12th century.
Astrological speculations dominate several papers.
The paper concludes with wide-ranging speculation about possible Mithraic connections on the part of Plato, Alexander the Great, the god Sarapis, and later Sasanian rulers. Studies in Mithraism contains an indispensable Thematic Index, as well as separate indices of Ancient Authors, Ancient Texts, Sites, Modern Authors, and an Index to citations from the Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae. The editor is to be congratulated on the small number of misprints, relative to the length and complexity of the material and the variety of languages involved.