Abstract
The “religion” of Mithra was a Mystery cult and an oriental religion in the Roman Empire, but the god and his cult remain much of an enigma today. The analysis of the worship rite itself – the non-sacrificial ritual meal – and of the central iconography – the tauroctony – throws into light some chtonic aspects related to the “psychopompos” function of the god. Moreover, a close study of the emperor Julian’s texts leads to the explicit conclusion that this function had been enriched with neoplatonic theurgic beliefs on the one hand, and on the other hand that the mithraic initiation led to the revelation of Sol as the main god. This had probably taken place as early as the 3rd century A. D. within the emperor’s Roman Religion.
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