to the human facrifices of the Mithriacs, but exhibits no fatisfactory evidence relative to the peculiar mode of ornamenting and lighting up the fubterraneous temple, described by me in a former chapter, and the refulgent orbs of different metals, (whence came the aftronomical characters of chemistry in use among us,) by which the feveral planets were designated. I have it, however, now in my power to establish beyond a doubt that curious circumstance recorded by Celfus.

Towards the close of the fixteenth century, in digging between the hills Viminalis and Quirinalis, at Rome, and in a spot which formed the vineyard of Horatius Muti, fome workmen discovered a vaulted chamber, or fmall circular temple, and the reader has been already informed, that all the temples of Mithra and Vesta, that is, the fun and fire, were both vaulted and circular, being fymbolical of the world, fabricated by Mithra, and illumined by his beam, and nourished and invigorated by the central fire of Vesta. In the middle of this temple stood a statue of Mithra, of white marble, fomewhat less than four feet high. It stood erect upon a globe, out of which a ferpent iffued, the emblem of life, which, twining in numerous folds around the body

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body of the deity, marked the revolutions of his orb and the cycles of revolving time. The body of the ftatue was that of a man, the head was that of a lion, alluding to the LEO MITHRIACA, or lion of the zodiac, which the reader may fee engraved on Dr. Hyde's first plate and in this volume. And here it may be useful to obferve, that whensoever, in antique fculptures or paintings, we meet with figures having the heads of lions, bulls, dogs, ferpents, or horfes, they in general allude either to thofe in the zodiac, or one or other of the forty-eight old constellations, according to the astronomical mythology of the country. The Sphynx of Egypt, so often noticed as the fymbol of the fun in Leo and Virgo, and the Anubis of that country, exposed to view when Syrius rofe heliacally, will fully explain my meaning. The two hands of this image grasp two keys, preffed closely to his breast, and four large wings expand from his fhoulders. The two keys plainly denote his power over the two hemifpheres, when, as the poets have it, he unlocks the gates of light to either world, and his four wings evidently point to the four quarters of that universe which he commands, as well as the velocity with which the folar light travels to them. The

circumstance,

circumftance, however, which principally arrefted the attention of those who difcovered this cavern-temple, was, that, around this image, A CIRCLE OF LAMPS was fufpended in regular order, which feemed to be made of baked earth, and which there can be but little doubt were formerly coloured to give the varied light of the planets fymbolized, although thofe colours were no longer difcernible. What was exceedingly remarkable, these lamps were fo arranged as that the fide which gave the light was turned towards the ftatue, a proof that the ancients knew the planets were themselves opaque bodies, and derived their light from the central orb, around which they revolved.*

Such was the Perfian Mithra: let us examine the character and offices of the priests who officiated in thofe caverns, which, Luctatius has before partly informed us, were chofen to be his temples; for this reafon, that, amidst the darkness of thofe receffes, the aftronomical priests might more effectually display to the view of their difciples the manner after which eclipfes of the fun, and other heavenly Rrr 3 bodies,

*See the account of Flaminius Vacca, a Roman fculptor, who examined this temple, extracted, from an Italian journal, by Mountfaucon in his Antiquities, vol. i. p. 232..

bodies, took place. On this head we must again confult Porphyry, who well knew, and as ably as poffible defended against the repeated attacks of the fathers, the whole circle of pagan fuperftitions. Porphyry informs us, that, from the lion being so usual a symbol in thefe rites, the priests were fometimes called Leones, and the priesteffes Leana, for Mithra had female minifters attendant on his orgies. Hence too the rites themselves were often denominated Leontica. From a crow or raven being, in most oriental regions, a bird facred to the fun, and of great request in these myfteries, they were thence called Coraces and Hierocoraces, and the mysteries themfelves Coracica and Hierocoracica.* raven is one of the oldest constellations, and perpetually occurs on all the marbles on which the Mithratic emblems are engraved, as may be seen in the plates of Hyde and Mountfaucon, illustrative of the rites of Mithra. In fine, these rites were fometimes called emphatically Eliaca, from El and Elios, terms which fignify the fun. All these priests wore the figures of the animal-conftellations which they represented, and whofe names they bore; but, as we have learned from Celfus, that, in the

Porphyrius de Abftinentia, lib. iv. p. 165.

The

cave

cave of Mithra, were exhibited the two-fold motions of the celeftial orbs, that is, the apparent one of the fixed ftars and the real one of the planetary; and, as there were patres facrorum et matres facrorum, so it is reasonable to suppose that there were numerous priefts of different orders, ages, and stations, according to the different magnitudes of the conftellations which they represented, fome being placed in the zodiac, fome in the northern, fome in the fouthern, hemifphere; but, as to Mithra himfelf, I have Porphyry's exprefs authority for afferting that his elevated station in his own temple was in the middle of the equinoctial, poffibly engraved on high, in a broad line of gold, which cut the zodiac as in the real sphere.*

The general figure of the cavern, and the pofition of the two gates; the gate of the fiery Cancer, the fummer folftice, through which the migrating foul defcended on the north, and that of the watery Capricorn, the winter folftice, through which it afcended on the fouth, the geometrical fymbols with which it was adorned, the fountains of water that ran murmuring through the midst of it, the fires kept continually burning in its inmost recesses, the

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De Antro Nymph. p. 265, idem edit.

two