Saturday, October 27, 2018

Review of Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Attilio Mastrocinque, The Mysteries of Mithras: A Different Account. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 24. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017. Pp. xxi, 363. ISBN 9783161551123. €99.00. ISBN 9783161551185. (ebook). Reviewed by Dominic Dalglish, Worcester College, Oxford (dominic.dalglish@worc.ox.ac.uk).
In this volume, Attilio Mastrocinque brings together work undertaken over the past two decades to offer a bold account of the formation and beliefs of the Roman Mysteries of Mithras. Its subtitle, ‘A Different Account’, offers the first clear sign that the work is far from conventional. It can in fact be considered controversial, at once managing to hark back to the work of the father of the discipline, Franz Cumont, whilst offering a thesis that would, should it be widely accepted, fundamentally change our understanding of this most intriguing of religious phenomena.

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