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Nature of deities examined. Attis. Mithra. The Messianic Feast. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie. Difference between the two initiations. Link between Phrygian, Mithraic, and Christian, Mysteries to be found in their higher, esoteric, teaching. Women not admitted to Mithraic initiation. Possible survival in Grail text. Joint diffusion through the Roman Empire. Cumont's evidence.
The Chart appended to Cumont's Monuments de Mithra shows Mithraic remains in precisely the locality where we have reason to believe certain of the Gawain and Perceval stories to have originated. As to the date of origin, that, of course, is closely connected with the problem of authorship; if we can, with any possibility, identify the author we can approximately fix the date.
In support of this statement I quoted certain passages from Cumont's Religions Orientales, in which he touches on the subject: here are two other quotations which may well serve as introduction to the evidence we are about to examine.
Ch. ii. See Cumont, op. cit., who says, p. 171: "Jamais, pas meme a l'epoque des invasions mussulmanes, l'Europe ne sembla plus pres de devenir asiatique qu'au moment ou Diocletien reconnaissait officiellement en Mithra, le protecteur de l'empire reconstitue." See also Cumont's Mysteres de Mithra, preface.
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