The Temple Of Mithras Sensory Study | Yolanda De Iuliis Mithraic Research

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

AIM

The research questionnaire aimed to investigate how ancient Romans may have felt being part of the Roman worship of Mithras. The key purpose was to explore the sensory experience that participants may have been exposed to and how they may have viewed the tauroctony.

CONTEXT

The questionnaire was based on the multi-sensory experience offered at the reconstructed and redisplayed temple at the London Mithraeum. Originally constructed in c. AD 240–250, the London Mithraeum was discovered after the London blitz in 1954. The Mithraeum originally stood on the east bank of the River Walbrook and was a primary freshwater source in Roman Londinium. Archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology suggest that by the fourth century, the temple had been taken over by the followers of Bacchus; it was abandoned in the fifth century. It now lies seven metres below today’s street level. The official visitors’ website states that it offers visitors an immersive experience that reproduces the bustling world of Roman Londinium as it once was.

Research regarding religion, the ancient body and the senses has become a critical means of understanding how ancient and modern worshippers and non-worshippers experience their perceptual world. People’s states of mind and psychological processes, such as behaviours and emotions, operate in the same way now as they would have done for the Romans. However, given the cultural differences between contemporary society and the Romans, it is likely that the Romans who visited the Temple of Mithras may have experienced the temple in a different way. This distinction is why issues can arise in reconstructing past experiences: no matter how many sensory modalities a reconstruction or museum tries to activate, modern man may never be able to fully feel or perceive what the Temple of Mithras was like. Nevertheless, this is why this type of research is essential; our knowledge must grow if we are to understand how ancient Romans may have lived their lives and how religion influenced their space, time, memory and perception.

RESEARCH METHOD

The questionnaire was created and designed online through Google Forms. The strategy was to distribute the questionnaire systematically and randomly. Thus, the questionnaire was first distributed to friends, family and colleagues, who then forwarded it to unknown individuals. Furthermore, three tutors from The Open University circulated the questionnaire amongst their students. Finally, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies promoted the questionnaire in the winter issue (XX, 10) of their online newsletter, Epistula, which helped to bring in further participants.

This method was advantageous in that it was easy to analyse the final data with high precision. However, the disadvantage of this method was that the questionnaire was unable to capture specific groups, such as exclusively males, who were the participants who predominately visited the ancient Mithraea. Therefore, the participants of the questionnaire were not specific to gender, age or area. Moreover, due to COVID-19, participants did not carry out the questionnaire inside the London Mithraeum but from their computers at home. As such, participants did not enjoy the full experience of being inside the reconstructed Mithraeum, although they could still listen to the original audio and look at both the original tauroctony, which is now housed in the Museum of London, and the reconstructed tauroctony, which sits inside the London Mithraeum.

STRUCTURE

The questionnaire asked 102 individuals to answer 9 questions and was designed to test two fundamental senses: sight and hearing. The first two questions were formulated to provide an indication of how many participants knew Latin and if they were familiar with Mithras. Questions 3 and 4 focused on testing the participants’ hearing. They were first asked to listen to a two-minute audio whilst blindfolded and wearing earphones before listening to the same audio without a blindfold or earphones. The audio is currently supplied to visitors during their experience at the London Mithraeum and is based on inscriptions found in the Santa Prisca Mithraeum in Rome. The audio was provided by the Bloomberg Connect App. Questions 5 and 6 showed participants the ancient image of the tauroctony found at the London Mithraeum, and then showed them the reconstructed tauroctony and inquired as to their thoughts regarding each image. Question 8 asked participants if they were interested in finding out more on the subject after seeing and hearing information about Mithras. Question 9 allowed participants to add any further comments, and the final question asked the individuals whether they would like to complete an additional questionnaire in the future if it would help advance the research concerning the worship of Mithras.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

The results show that 50% of the participants did not know any Latin whatsoever, which did not seem to have affected the individuals’ senses or feelings during questions three and four when participants had to listen to the audio in Latin. In fact, the statistics indicate that participants were highly intrigued when listening to the Latin ritual greetings. When participants listened to the audio whilst blindfolded, results suggest that they felt somewhat more uncomfortable, frightened and anxious than they were when listening to the audio without a blindfold. This observation is key to understanding how participants may have felt during the ritual initiation process or how onlookers who viewed these encounters may have felt. Frescos have depicted some of the rituals that worshippers of Mithras underwent, and being blindfolded was a significant aspect of these rituals. Thus, if modern participants, who were sat in their bedrooms in a controlled environment, felt uncomfortable, frightened or anxious, even when listening to audio of events whilst blindfolded, this allows us to envision what the majority of participants worshipping Mithras were feeling. It must, however, be noted that the latter’s senses would have been heightened since worshippers were not only blindfolded but also naked and undergoing other tests before being accepted into the Mithraeum.

Over half (56.9%) of the participants had never heard of Mithras before completing the questionnaire, and only 28% knew a little about the religion. This finding is significant as participants still engaged with the religion and felt the effects of the audio and images. Therefore, even at first glance, the naive viewer (or non-experienced viewer) can provide insights into how new members in ancient Rome may have felt when first hearing of Mithras, attending the liturgy or seeing the tauroctony. This result also suggests that one’s reaction is dependent on the time or place in which one lives: the cultural context is an important mediator of how an individual interprets sounds or images.

Participants were shown two separate images of a tauroctony (both an ancient and a modern reconstruction). Interestingly, the majority of participants related both images to mythology. Meanwhile, 27.7% associated the modern representation with sacrifice, whereas only 21.8% observed the same relation for the ancient image. This may provide an insight into modern viewers and how they perceive and interpret ancient artefacts compared to contemporary interpretations. The reconstructed image focuses on the slaying of the bull rather than the other areas of the tauroctony seen in the ancient image. Therefore, the modern image’s more prevalent association with sacrifice makes sense. Both images scored 8.9% for associations with Rome: this is curious as many of the participants knew nothing about Mithras but still associated both images with Rome, rather than something from their own country with which they may have been more familiar.

Another notable statistic for questions three and four was that only 1% thought the ancient image related to God, and 5% associated the modern image with God. This finding is curious and again highlights some key aspects for further enquiry. Indeed, how could a modern recreation of Mithras, a god worshipped all over the Roman Empire, inspire people to think of God in modern times? This aspect allows one to see how objects, in general, can trigger personal images within an individual’s head, leading them, in turn, to an interpretation of objects that corresponds to their own identity or God.

A considerable number of participants (68.3%) would be interested in finding out more about Mithras, indicating that further research on the relationship between Mithras, the body, and the senses that Mithras arouses could be investigated more as there are willing participants to aid future studies. This contemporary interest suggests that ancient people may have been easily involved or attracted towards finding out more about Mithras and its secrets. In addition, 79.4% expressed willingness to help if further research had to be conducted involving a similar questionnaire.

Participants had the opportunity to reflect upon the questionnaire and add any comments they felt would augment their answers (see appendix 1). Fifty-one out of 102 left additional remarks. These comments show that many were ‘intrigued’ and wanted ‘to find out more’. Meanwhile, many found listening to the audio while blindfolded ‘scary’, ‘aggressive’, ‘unearthly’ and ‘uncomfortable’. There was, as such, a unanimous feeling amongst participants that the experience of being blindfolded while listening to the audio was very unpleasant; they were, nevertheless, intrigued and expressed a desire to learn more. We can infer from this that ancient initiates may have encountered the same emotional rollercoaster during their participation within a Mithraeum.

Other comments noted that the images and audio were ‘otherworldly’, ‘magical’, and ‘unearthly’. These participants were not in a Mithraeum, surrounded by other noises, participants and smells, so one can imagine the intensity of ancient participants’ emotions during their encounters with Mithraeums and how their world of worshipping Mithras took them to another place, just as it created that feeling in modern participants and took them to a place separate from their current world. The most notable of the additional comments were those that highlighted familiarity and being part of something. One participant said they felt a sense of ‘belonging’ and ‘being part of something bigger’, implying that ancient believers may have felt the same sense of being part of something more meaningful than their current world due to their connection to Mithras, a greater power. Another participant highlighted that the images made them think of ‘London’ as they had seen the Mithraeum before. The notion of a ‘cult’ never came to their minds; the images evoked, instead, a feeling of ‘home’. We may infer from this observation that ancient participants who worshipped Mithras and visited their local Mithraeum did not automatically think of Mithras or the religion but rather of the community, their identity, and their actual town or home. Most interestingly, two participants described their experience as both ‘strange’ and yet ‘familiar’ because of their experiences growing up in the Church. This, again, shows the relationship and attachment that religion cultivates in people and how religions are structured in a familiar way, so much so that, even now, modern participants can familiarise themselves quickly with an ancient religion.

CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH

This questionnaire and report have provided an example of one of the ways that scholars could find out more about how ancient Romans may have felt during their worship of Mithras. This study also highlights how the modern naive viewer and their interpretation of reconstructed religious buildings such as the London Mithraeum can be examined. These types of examinations are crucial to understanding how ancient viewers decoded ancient symbols such as the tauroctony and the emotions they might have experienced during initiation processes or ritual gatherings. The focus here has been on the sensory experience: that is, how worshippers of Mithras may have felt. To further understand not only modern interpretations but also ancient minds, researchers could survey other reconstructed religious temples from the ancient world or gather further insights into other reconstructed Mithraeums around the Roman Empire. Examples include the Mithraeum of Felicissimus at the Museumpark Orientalis, Groesbeek, in The Netherlands, or the Saalburg Roman Fort, Limes Germanicus, Germania. Questionnaires could be immediately administered after participants have visited these reconstructed sites to test their sensory modalities and yield more accurate results.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS

‘The audio sounded a bit scary at first with the lack of visual stimulation, but the second time around it was less scary. The first image made me feel intrigued, and the second image made me feel curious’.

‘I felt very curious about what was going on’.

‘Wearing the blindfold, the background sounds (the horn, the drums, the bells) seemed somehow amplified, and it was they that made the audio unsettling’.

‘I felt a dark sinister presence’.

‘Intrigued, to find out more’.

‘I want to know more!’.

‘The audio made me feel like I'm dealing with people who follow a priest without thinking and I find that annoying. I find the images as often with these kind of images intriguing’.

‘Inspired to find out more’.

‘Felt really uncomfortable listening to it because I didn't know what they were saying and they could've been conjuring the devil’.

‘Belonging/part of something bigger’.

‘Felt really uncomfortable with the audio’.

‘I imagine being there in person would be more inspiring’.

‘The audio is a bit strange but mostly because its not known what they are chanting’.

‘The chanting (which was recognisable as involving adult men), that made me feel especially intrigued and which took me somewhere that was obviously different from the current world’.

‘Intrigued’.

‘Eerie and intriguing’.

‘Inquisitive and watchful’.

‘Having been a church goer growing up it was interesting to hear Latin used in worship again. That part of the ritual was recognisable for me, and it sounded like prayer so I had a sense of familiarity. The audio quality was better with headphones on, so I felt more enclosed within the sound and immersed in what was happening. It was more of an experience than just listening to it over the speakers - which felt slightly more removed. I liked the visual of the real artefact which made me wonder about what the artist intended all those years ago. I did not like the second image of the interpretation in the Mithraeum. It was a poorly executed illustration and difficult to figure out what was happening in the image’.

‘Related to something magical, unearthly’.

‘The sounds and images felt otherworldly in an unsettling and alien way’.

‘I thought it was interesting to have both senses as visited many ancient sights in Rome and still no idea what their civilisation was actually like but this felt more like a deeper insight- was interested in the recital’.

‘The question about the images raised an interesting point - when I see them now, I primarily think of London, rather than the cult per se, which might be to do with growing up there. There were a lot of Mithraic temples around Europe, but this is the one from ‘home'.

‘Audio image reminded me of church services growing up’.

‘When listening to the audio the second time and with my eyes open - it sounds and auditory atmosphere felt a lot more aggressive’.

‘The audio felt intimidating, can really imagine a ritual being in progress’.

‘Felt a bit like something from an old horror. Like part of a ritual’.

‘It is a strange feeling. But also in church you sing and chant together, so therefore also familiar’.

‘It was an interesting experience’.

‘Listing to the audio made me picture being in a cult where I was being brainwashed. To me it sounded like they where worshiping some demon spirit or the devil’.

‘The audio brought a possible sacrifice event to my mind’.