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>The Lion-headed God
>There is an even closer link between Iranian myth and the global events surrounding the age of Leo. One of the principal animal forms of Angra Mainyu is the lion, and this association is personified no better than in the mysterious lion~headed figure once venerated in the dark subterranean temples dedicated to the god Mithras. Life-sized statues of this winged deity show it with the body of a human male, a pair of keys in one hand and either the earth or the cosmic egg beneath its feet. Coiled around its torso is a snake - its head rising up over the top ofthe mane (or sometimes shown entering the mouth of the lion), while studded either on to its chest or carved in an arc above its head are the twelve signs of the zodiac
>Mithraism emerged into the limelight of classical history during the first century BC. According to Plutarch (50-120 AD), the pirates of Cilicia, a country in Asia Minor, conducted 'secret mysteries' to Mithra on Mount Olympus. He added that these strange rites had been 'originally instituted by them''. The cult's rise to prominence during this era may well have been influenced by the alliance forged between the Cilician pirates and Mithridates IV, the king of Pontus, a country in north-eastern Asia Minor, whose personal name meant 'given by Mithra' - Mithra being the deity who judged the souls after death in the Magian religion. Mithridates' greatest ally, however, had been his son-in-law Tigran the Great, the king of Armenia, with whom he had driven the Romans out of Cappadocia and Phrygia in 88 BC. A great number of Cilicians had been persuaded by Tigran to live in the fortress of Tigranakert, south of Lake Van, and it is extremely likely that these people introduced Mithraism into the city (see Chapter Fourteen)
