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Upper Danube: Carnuntum: lion statue from the Mithraeum
Lion statue outside Temple of Mithras (© 1999 BFA Documentary Photography)
Carnuntum
lies between the modern towns of Bad Deutsch-Altenburg and Petronell,
40 km down the Danube from Vienna (Roman Vindobona). The name Carnuntum
is of Illyrian origin, referring to a Celtic hill-fort or oppidum.
After the arrival of the Romans, indigenous people resettled in a
civilian town, eventually made a municipium. Romans, meanwhile,
brought in a host of new practices from around the empire, including
worship at the cult of Mithras, a Near-Eastern God of light and
fertility.
The Carnuntum museum contains a reconstructed
Mithraeum (temple to Mithras), with this statue of a lion guarding
the entrance to the temple. Fabricated inside a cave which symbolized
the universe, the temple recreates the legendary battle between Mithras
and an evil spirit. The cult of Mithras was very popular amoung Roman
soldiers between the second and fourth century AD, with legionary
Mithraeums known from Syria to Hadrian's Wall in Britain.
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