Sodalitas Graeciae (Nova Roma)/Religion from the Papyri/Mithraism

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A Mystery Oath

This third century Oxyrhynchus papyrus was published by Bartoletti as n. 1162 in Papiri, Greci e Latini (= PSI) X. While the text is quite fragmentary, it clearly records an oath taken in the context of some astral mystery cult (l. 21, ἀστέρων). The καυτοπαυ (= Καυτοπάτου?) in l. 14 suggests that this may be a Mithraic text. Although, much better attested in other parts of the Roman empire, Roman Mithraism did have a (minimal) presence in Egypt (c.f. CIMRM 91-105). Then in 1937 Bartoletti published another papyrus fragment with substantially the same oath formula in "Frammenti di un rituale d'iniziazione ai misteri" in Annali della R. Scuoli Normale Superiore de Pisa (Pisa: 1937) 143-152. This new fragment allowed him to make a fairly certain restoration for the beginning of PSI 1162. Below are both texts with restored lines.

Reconstructed PSI 1162
]α̣ντος γῆν ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ

]αι ἡμέραν ἐγ'νυκτὸς
]εως καὶ ζωὴν ἀπὸ θα-
] φ̣θορᾶς ἐπόμνυμαι
]ους συντηρήσειν
]εδομένα μοι μυστή-
] πατέρα Σαραπίωνα
-]τον ἱεροκήρυκα Κα-
ὑ]ράρχει, καὶ τοὺς συν-
-]υς ἀδελφούς. εὐορκοῦ(ν)-
-]κοῦν[τι δὲ τ]ὰ ἐναν-
-]ήσω.
-]ον π̣[.......]ι ὁμοι-

]καυτοπαυ
]τ̣οῖς ὀξέσιν
]σ̣φραγεῖδες
]σημειῶσ̣ι̣
]υστηοπα
]σερ.ι
]
]μ' ἀστέρων
]λ̣ε διαστητε
]ν ἤμειβεν ον-
]η̣τε καὶ ενον
]τ̣ροματηρ
]ηκωσιν
]ητων.ν
].σ̣ο̣[
].[

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