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MUMMY FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF THE PRIEST OF MITHRAS | MS 247

MUMMY FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF THE PRIEST OF MITHRAS

MS 247
MS Short Title MUMMY FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF THE PRIEST OF MITHRAS
Text MUMMY FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF THE PRIEST OF MITHRAS, ORNOUPHIOS, SON OF ARTEMIS, LIVED 14 YEARS, CHOIAK 15, THE 3RD YEAR
Description MS in Greek on linen cloth, Egypt, late 1st c. BC, 1 cloth (complete), 14x39 cm, single column, (9x21 cm), 6 lines in Greek half-uncial.
Context The collection of the renowned papyrologist Prof. Atiyah consisted of more than 677 papyri, mainly originating in Middle Egypt, including Oxyrhynchus and Fayum. The first part of 140 papyri (H.P. Kraus cat. 105(1961)), is now in Yale, Beinecke Library, while 242 Greek papyri is MS 244 and 295 Coptic papyri is MS 245 in The Schøyen Collection, see also MS 108.
Provenance 1. Aziz Suryal Atiyah, Utah, USA ( - ca. 1960); 2. H. P. Kraus, New York, USA, (ca. 1960 - ); 3. Richard Linenthal Collection, London.
Commentary Apart from this MS, no documents or scriptures seem to be extant on Mithra. Scholars have been able to analyze the cult based on fragmentary references, short stone inscriptions, bas-reliefs and sculptures. Mithra was an ancient Indo-Aryan god of the Persians and Indians, identified with the sun, cattle, agriculture, war, truth and immortality. Introduced into the Roman Empire in the 1st c. BC, Mithraism became the most popular and widespread of the foreign religions adopted by the Romans. It lasted until Christianity was adopted by Constantine the Great in 311.
Place of origin Egypt
Dates Late 1st c. BC