"[12]
Another element aided in the diffusion of the ritual. Of all the
Oriental cults which journeyed Westward under the aegis of Rome none
was so deeply rooted or so widely spread as the originally Persian
cult of Mithra--the popular religion of the Roman legionary. But
between the cults of Mithra and of Attis there was a close and
intimate alliance. In parts of Asia Minor the Persian god had early
taken over features of the Phrygian deity. "Aussitot que nous pouvons
constater la presence du culte Persique en Italie nous le trouvons
etroitement uni a celui de la Grande Mere de Pessinonte."[13]
The union between Mithra and the goddess Anahita was held to be the
equivalent of that subsisting between the two great Phrygian deities
Attis-Kybele. The most ancient Mithreum known, that at Ostia, was
attached to the Metroon, the temple of Kybele. At Saalburg the ruins
of the two temples are but a few steps apart. "L'on a tout lieu de
croire que le culte du dieu Iranien et celui de la deesse Phrygienne
vecurent en communion intime sur toute l'etendue de l'Empire."[14]
A proof of the close union of the two cults is afforded by the mystic
rite of the Taurobolium, which was practised by both, and which, in
the West, at least, seems to have passed from the temples of the
Mithra to those of the Magna Mater.
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