Father and the Holy Ghost. So, too, do the two thieves belong inwardly to Christ. The two Dadophores are, as Cumont points out, nothing but offshoots[57] from the chief figure of Mithra, to whom belongs a mysterious three-*fold character. According to an account of Dionysus Areopagita, the magicians celebrated a festival, "[Greek: tou~ triplasi/ou Mi/throu]."[1][58] An observation likewise referring to the Trinity is made by Plutarch concerning Ormuzd: [Greek: tri\s e(auto\n au)xê/sas a)pe/stêse tou~ ê(li/ou].[2] The Trinity, as three different states of the unity, is also a Christian thought. In the very first place this suggests a sun myth. An observation by Macrobius 1:18 seems to lend support to this idea:
"Hæ autem ætatum diversitates ad solem referuntur, ut parvulus
videatur hiemali solstitio, qualem Aegyptii proferunt ex
adyto die certa, . . . æquinoctio vernali figura iuvenis ornatur.
Postea statuitur ætas ejus plenissima effigie barbæ solstitio æstivo
. . . exunde per diminutiones veluti senescenti quarta forma deus
figuratur."[3][59]
As Cumont observes, Cautes and Cautapates occasionally
carry in their hands the head of a bull, and a scorpion.[60]
Taurus and Scorpio are equinoctial signs, which
clearly indicate that the sacrificial scene refers primarily
to the Sun cycle; the rising Sun, which sacrifices itself at
- ↑ Of the threefold Mithra.
- ↑ Having expanded himself threefold, he departed from the sun.
- ↑ Now these differences in the seasons refer to the Sun, which seems at the winter solstice an infant, such as the Egyptians on a certain day bring out of their sanctuaries; at the vernal equinox it is represented as a youth. Later, at the summer solstice, its age is represented by a full growth of beard, while at the last, the god is represented by the gradually diminishing form of an old man.
