Here's one for the bulletin board at work. ) http://www.lglobal.com/~hermes3/mithras.htm F

Here's one for the bulletin board at work.  =)

http://www.lglobal.com/~hermes3/mithras.htm
     
     
     For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped 
     the god Mithras. Known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, 
     Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the veneration of this god 
     began some 4000 years ago in Persia, where it was soon imbedded with 
     Babylonian doctrines. The faith spread east through India to China, 
     and reached west throughout the entire length of the Roman frontier; 
     from Scotland to the Sahara Desert, and from Spain to the Black Sea. 
     Sites of Mithraic worship have been found in Britain, Italy, Romania, 
     Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Persia, Armenia, Syria, Israel, 
     and North Africa.
     
          In Rome, more than a hundred inscriptions dedicated to Mithras 
     have been found, in addition to 75 sculpture fragments, and a series 
     of Mithraic temples situated in all parts of the city. One of the 
     largest Mithraic temples built in Italy now lies under the present 
     site of the Church of St. Clemente, near the Colosseum in Rome.
     
          The widespread popularity and appeal of Mithraism as the final 
     and most refined form of pre-Christian paganism was discussed by the 
     Greek historian Herodotus, the Greek biographer Plutarch, the 
     neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, the Gnostic heretic Origen, and St. 
     Jerome the church Father. Mithraism was quite often noted by many 
     historians for its many astonishing similarities to Christianity.
     
          The faithful referred to Mithras as "the Light of the World", 
     symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between heaven 
     and earth and was a member of a Holy Trinity. According to Persian 
     mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the title 'Mother of 
     God'. The god remained celibate throughout his life, and valued 
     self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his 
     worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which 
     brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify against the forces of 
     evil.
     
          The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial 
     heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent powers 
     of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the 
     final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to 
     come. They looked forward to a final day of judgement in which the 
     dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the 
     existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over 
     darkness.
     
          Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the 
     faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank wine 
     and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god. Sundays were 
     held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on 
     December the 25th. After the earthly mission of this god had been 
     accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before 
     ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above. 
     
          However, it would be a vast oversimplification to suggest that 
     Mithraism was the single forerunner of early Christianity. Aside from 
     Christ and Mithras, there were plenty of other deities (such as 
     Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Balder, Attis, and Dionysus) said to have died 
     and resurrected. Many classical heroic figures, such as Hercules, 
     Perseus, and Theseus, were said to have been born through the union of 
     a virgin mother and divine father. Virtually every pagan religious 
     practice and festivity that couldn't be suppressed or driven 
     underground was eventually incorporated into the rites of Christianity 
     as it spread across Europe and throughout the world.