Steve visits London’s British MuseumBy the first century of the Common Era, mystery cults from the Middle East were becoming popular throughout the Roman Empire. One of them was Mithraism, with its myth of Mithra's killing a bull. The blood of the bull was said to have given life to the world, symbolized by the dog and the snake drinking its blood. Initiates in the cult stood in a pit where they showered in and drank of the blood of a bull being killed on the grating above them. The strength of the bull was supposed to enter the initiates by this means. << Back Next >> |