Reincarnation in Mithraism?

[Epictetus]

Was reincarnation a belief in Mithraism?

[Jona Lendering]

I have never heard of it, and would be surprised. After all, what's the use of a salvation cult if you have to reincarnate and it starts all over again?

On the other hand, religions are usually illogical. Why studying the Law of Moses when the Apocalypse is near? An illogical combination, but we've found it in the scrolls of the Dead Sea. So: Mithraic reincarantion, who knows?

[Epictetus]

This is something that intrigues me. Lucian says that Publis Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus, suffect consul of 146, once asked a prophet about his past and future lives. He was told:

“Peleus’ son wert thou at the first; thereafter Menander,
Then what thou seemest now, and hereafter shalt turn to a sunbeam.
Four score seasons of life shall be given thee over a hundred.”

Being reincarnated as a sunbeam seems unusual. Evidently it is anthropomorphism of some sort. Also, saying that Rutilianus was Peleus’ son Achilles seems to be a fawning reference to some divine background. So combining the anthropomorphism of light with deity made me think of Sol or Mithra.

Any ideas what could be going on here?

[Nathan Ross]

I don't think this is Mithraism. It sounds a little like a form of late stoicism, which has the soul being reborn successively before uniting with the divine fire (pneuma) - the poetic 'sunbeam' maybe? But rebirth in stoicism is usually caused by the destruction and recreation of the universe by fire, and the new life is a rerun of the old one!

It could be something like Neo-pythagoreanism, which held with reincarnation in different bodies (or animals, or supposedly even beans) - I don't know whether this led to an eventual cosmic union with the divine fire or not though...

That Rutilianus asked the prophet about past and future lives suggests he already belived in reincarnation, and the prophet was telling him what he wanted to hear - it could be that this belief represents a sort of popularised or debased form of various Hellenistic philosophies: the sort of thing that perhaps wouldn't be recorded in the writings of the day, but which many people believed nevertheless.

[Jona Lendering]

Any ideas what could be going on here?

Pythagoreanism. Your quote is, if I am right, from Lucian's Life of Alexander. Alexander was a student of a student of Apollonius of Tyana, who apparently combined the teachings of Pythagoras with the cult of the Sun.

[Epictetus]

Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks!

And yes, the quote was from Alexander. Sorry, I normally always cite quotes but this time I forgot.

[Jona Lendering]

Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks!

It is my pleasure and my honor, David.

[Canus Messienus Draco]

I found this in an article I was reading on Mithraism.

In Chapter 40 of The Prescription Against Heretics, the 2nd-century Christian writer Tertullian notes that Mithraists "celebrate also the oblation of bread and introduce an image of a resurrection." Aside from Tertullian, however, no other ancient source scholar mentions the image of resurrection in Mithraic ritual.