Mithraism
Sallam,
The next not-so-regular doreh meeting is going to be next Wednesday (Mar 8th) (notice it's not Thurdsay!). Before I introduce our guest speaker I should formally thank Shapour Hakam for his continous contributions to doreh. Shapour has introduced few of our speakers including doreh's next guest. Thanks very much :)
"Parviz Varjavand" will talk about an Iranian myth called "Mithraism". There has been many questions on this myth. The following introduction is by Shapour which I find very interesting:
"Mithraism is an old Iranian Religion (perhaps before Zoroaster). In Iran we call it Mehr << i.e., MehrdAd>>
Have you heard nAzeri's song:
Parastesh be masti ast dar kish-e' Mehr.....
It became very popular in Europe about 2000 years ago. There are about 50 Mithraic Temples in Rome, some of them well preserved. (I visited one). In another city next to Rome (Ostia antica) there are 18 Mithraic Temples.
Some of the rituals/traditions of Mithraism are:
- Mithra was born on Dec 25, about 300 years before christ from a Virgin mother! << this is also related to Yalda: Yalda literally means birth !>>
- The head of their temple was called Pater << i.e., papa or Pope>>
- Had a last supper before going back to heavens
- Drank wine as a symbol of blood
- ...."
Parviz Varjavand was born in 1318 Sh. He was inspired by two of his best teachers: "Zabih Behrooz" and "Mohammad Moghadam" who were historians at the time. Mithraism goes back to the Ariyai's race. During the AshkAnian's era the mythicl images are given more concrete form. The concept of 'Mehr (The moon or silver) and Nahid (the Sun, or gold) is the male/female inerpretation of this myth.
I think I've given enough introduction for this even. Basically, what it boils down to is: YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS EVNET!! So, plan to be there next Wednesday.
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