The Mysteries of Mithra (MIRCEA ELIADE A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity Chapter 2)
217. The Mysteries of Mithra
According to Plutarch (Pompey 24. 5), the Cilician pirates "secretly celebrated the Mysteries" of Mithra; conquered and captured by Pompey, they disseminated this cult in the West. This is the first explicit reference to the Mysteries of Mithra. 41 We do not know by what process the Iranian god glorified by the Mihr-yast (see § 109) was transformed into the Mithra of the Mysteries.