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Many legends and myths that come down through the years
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are a mixture of folklore and history
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But some stories that reach us from the dim distant past
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will always be more of a mystery.
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By the wall Emperor Hadrian's soldiers built
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to mark out his empire's extent
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they made temples to workship a little-known god
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that they honoured wherever they went
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(Latin recitation)
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This god was no Jupiter, Neptune
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or one Roman citizens would see as home-grown
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This god, Mithras, some claimed was Persian
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until the soldiers, they made him their own
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And to honour this Mithras and offer him thanks
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for the benefits they thought that he gave
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they built temples so that on the inside
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they'd resemble an underground cave
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At an image of Mithras slaying a bull
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an officer officiated
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In the darkness where torches gave flickering light
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new followers were initiated
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Blindfolded and naked they entered the place
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Before the god Mithras they'd kneel
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And some sort of ceremony was performed
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that all swore they would never reveal
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But what was the ceremony? We really don't know
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what the rites of Mithras were about
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and when Rome adopted the Christian faith
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gods like Mithras were soon driven out
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By the wall Emperor Hadrian's soldiers built
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to mark out his empire's sway
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they made temples to honour a little-known god
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You can still see their ruins today.
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We know a few things about the Mithras cult and they're always from the outside. We know
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that it was a secret religious society of initiates, that it was especially popular
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in the Roman army which carried it all over the empire, that it was supposed to come from
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Persia but probably came from Rome itself and that people were initiated up through
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seven grades in it which correspond roughly to the seven visible planets of ancient times.
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We know that initiation involved the initiate being naked and being given various terrifying
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experiences before being released. We know that there was a god at the centre of the
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cult who's a good-looking young male who kills a huge bull. The cult of Mithras was one of
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the greatest mystery religions of the Roman Empire, carried on secretly in subterranean
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temples of which English Heritage cares for a beautiful one at Carrawburgh on Hadrian's
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Wall. Today the Temple of Mithras on Hadrian's Wall is reduced to foundations so it's a rectangular
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structure with a floor and the basis of an altar at the end but you can see the shape
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of it and it's easy to imagine the roof going back on. It would have been windowless and
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therefore dark. You would have come in to torchlight or candlelight and seen that relief
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of the divine male slaughtering the great bull shimmering at the end of the wall. Or
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at least you would have seen it when your blindfold would have been removed and you'd
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be allowed to take part in the mysteries. Most of the ruined temples of Roman Britain
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were to public cults for the community and for the empire. Places like the Mithraeum
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at Carrawburgh are about real individuals having real religious experiences with deities
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of their choice and you can't get closer to the heart of religion than that.