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Fun fact about the cult of Pythagoras: they were allegedly so put off by irrational numbers that you weren't even told about their existence until you made it to the higher tiers. edit for some context: These guys lived in a world where all math was based on geometry and modern algebra was well more than a millennia away. In that respect, the idea of a number that you couldn't measure with a ruler and a compass being some kind of abomination isn't THAT silly.
There's an interesting manga about a math teacher being isekai'd into a kid and showing various math tricks and puzzles including irrational numbers as he would really rather be learning to do magic. Weird name though, Search for "my magician senior" and you should find it.
Man, I'd love it if in some ancient text somewhere, someone who was denied membership to one of these cults wrote out the ancient Roman equivalent of "Why won't those stupid idiots let me in their crappy club for jerks?" lol.
@@Memelord1117 Roman graffiti is such a testament to human nature. "Sorry, ladies, I'm done with you! I, Telsemachus, am only going to sport with men now!" - I have to think a few of the sex workers in the food court the rough equivalent appeared in were relieved to hear this. It's like if MGTOW had a bisexuality clause.
@101Mant if you're playing in the British isles, he's the most important piece of the metaplot, if you're not, he's relatively minor. Which is kind of the nature of vampire lore, it's all as important as you want it to be
Starting a Chronicle in Victorian England soon. I'm ST, and am very much planning on the cult of Mithras having a substantial place in the plot. Should be fun for the coterie!
The spectrum between what we know today as Organized Religions, Occult Rituals, gentleman's clubs, labor/trade unions/guilds, fraternal orders, and insurance companies is such a fascinating area of history. Not quite fully religious, not quite fully political, not quite fully social, and not quite fully economic, but including aspects of all. It's something that doesn't really compute for us in our thoroughly modern contemporary culture.
One of my favourite places to visit is the London Mithreum! Its an awesome underrated and free place to visit. They use lights and fog to rebuild the temple, it is breathtaking.
@@blaster915 you absolutely should, there's also a wall of artefacts including part of a roman door they found in the Thames. Just be sure to book a place online.
That's probably how they got people to join. "C'mon dude, tell me, what's the deal with the scorpion?" "Can't tell you, that knowledge is for member's only"
AFAIK the oldest secret society known was the cult of Ceres and Persephone at Eleusis, from where the word "mystery" as commonly used stems ( a "mystery" was originally just a religious rite based on an event of its founding mythos, but since theirs were the ones whose existence was the most well-known, while also being the most unknown, it ended with its current meaning).
Hi, major classical religion nerd here. The Eleusinian Mysteries are interesting, in that they are the oldest example of a 'Mystery' in the Greek and Roman worlds, that is a set of rituals that were supposed to be secret to non-initiates. The Mysteries, however, were not much of an organised group nor were they *that* secret. The Mysteries literally consisted of a single, drawn out ritual involving a procession from Athens to Eleusis and back, ritual ordeals, and most likely a ritual encounter with the goddess Demeter. That's it. Some people did the ritual multiple times in their life, but it's closer to a very elaborate baptism you're not allowed to tell anyone about than a real secret society. And as I said, it also wasn't *that* secret. Some estimates have the majority of the Athenian citizen population be initiated in the mysteries, as they weren't really that picky. While the Eleusinian Mysteries were certainly uniquely unorganised and loose, it is worth mentioning many other Mystery Cults (especially the older ones) were similarly more a 'thing we do every so often but don't tell anyone about', rather than a full blown secret society like the Mithraics (and even the Mithraics appear to have been limited to a bunch of mostly independant local chapter houses). From what we can tell based on a couple of snitches throughout history, the Eleusinian Mysteries seem to have been a ritual to ensure a good afterlife (again, similar to a baptism). They seem to have included a ritual encounter with death, from which Demeter 'saved' the inititate. If you're wondering why Demeter, she was actually a major cthonic goddess to many Greeks. Not only is her daughter Persephone, but she herself was often seen as a goddess of rebirth and reincarnation. The idea appeared to have been that she caused grain to emerge from the ground, life from death, and could therefore also bring the dead back to life (although not in a Christian style resurrection, I don't actually know if the details of this afterlife-belief are known).
@@aquos4176 It's certainly interesting. The only other thing I know about Demeter's life-giving/keeping powers is that myth about the seasons, and I've heard that the usual take on it, that it's winter when Persephone goes back to Hades, is mostly a current misunderstanding, and that it's in fact summer (seems like summers in Ancient Greece were scorching, plus it makes a lot of sense given that one of the people she goes to ask about her daughter during that season, and the one that provides her with an answer, is Helios).
@@aquos4176 They are very interesting, I think the term mystery comes from the fact each person had their own experience induced from the use of some kind of drug the Greeks figured out how to cultivate, which given that Greek society had spirituality and religion woven into the fabric of their unspoken social norms, that materialized into an encounter with their deity. Each person that did this died before they died, came to terms with death, and was enlightened from the burden of death on the soul. We today call that an ego death. If your a greek and you've never consumed this drug let alone in a ritual setting, and everyone tells you your about to meet a god, your mind will make it so. But the experience you have can't be conveyed through retelling it to someone else, because communing with your inner self and experiencing death is an experience unique to you, a mystery to everyone else. That is the mystery. Humans are afraid of death, we have an instinct to preserve ourselves up until the last moments, so when people walk into a temple, events occur, and they come out totally at peace with themselves and no longer fear their death and are ready for it. That is enlightenment. That's puzzling and the Greeks were known for thinking pretty hard about such concepts. It's particularly interesting that these sorts of spiritual practices seem to happen in different societies, across different periods of time, with these people having no remote contact what so ever with each other. A ritual, an encounter with a deity, an experience of death, coming to terms, and leading to enlightenment.
So was mithraism, one of the things mithras is responsible for (at least in its persian form) is literally death and rebirth (hence the scorpion/cancer getting the seed out of the bulls testicles so a new bull will be born)
God I've been obsessed with Mithras and his cult for so long, so glad yall are doing a video on it! I hope there will be mentions of Sol Invictus and the Tauroctony
I remember how Raised by Wolves had Mithraism take Christianity's place and thinking how unrealistic it was. Christianity's whole strength was in NOT being a secret society with elite membership. If Mithraism was to spread the way Christianity did it would have had to reorganize significantly.
@@Makarosc You had to repent of your sins and be baptized. That's not nothing. Also, you'll be worshiping alongside people you would otherwise consider your enemies. Keep in mind Jesus's disciples included tax collectors and zealots, literally traitors and terrorists.
@@chowyee5049one Big Advantage of Christianity over Mithraism is the Christians is Pro-Poor while Mithra adherent are almost exclusively for Rich Folks also Mithraism system of recruitment is almost similar to Fraternity which tend to Exclusiveness to Certain degree of People While early Christianity has no discrimination to join its ranks no matter your Status in Society ie: Poor & Rich , Sinner , Criminals , Romans or Non-Romans aslong you truly repent of your Sin and Pray in the name of Jesus your welcome too the Fold.
Just came from the series on early chirstian schisms and loved seeing how this series has developped over the years. I always love how accessible these ideas are made, yet how much I still learn. Thanks so much for sticking with this and producing great content!
Please do the Greek war of independence of 1821 against the ottoman empire next I've been asking for this since the first episodes of the sengoku Jidai!!
I always enjoyed seeing the remains of the Temple of Mithras in central London - these were at ground level on a plaza so you could just walk up and view them. They've since been restored to their proper subterranean location, situated below the Bloomberg HQ.
First time I heard about the Cult of Mithras was from a Doctor Who audio drama ("Seasons of Fear") taking place at the time in a Roman fort at Hadrian's wall during the late Empire. It caused me to look it up afterwards. It's fascinating to learn about!
There’s a wonderful church in Rome, San Clemente, which is a 15th century church built above a 5th century church built above a 1st century Mithraeum - one of my favourite sites in the city
There's actually one possible missing link that could explain the noticeable discrepancy and evolution of Mithras and that is the royal cult of Mithras in Commagene and later Pontus, it's actually interesting how the Persianate religions of the areas adopted the elements of Zoroastrian religions that most fitted their scaled-down versions of the Persian imperial cult often focusing on the role of the king as an enactor of the law of Mazda, the Heavenly God's master of armies and champion, a role that was taken in the Heaven by Mitra quite often. In synthesis, Azura Mazda gives unto Mitra the solemn duty of enacting his will and Mitra gives unto the emperor *his* solemn duty to enact his, it's basically a martial hierarchy based on vows of loyalty and pledges of allegiance, something Mitra is the god of, something that is important for a king and his generals and "vassals". At times the more esoteric and difficult to grasp Asura Mazda was simply dropped as what was important to the royal cult was the idea of Mitra as a god that fights evil and upholds the cosmic order, duties he can then entrust to the king as his earthly aid de camp thus giving him a heavenly mandate. It's an interesting theory one that I would say holds water
mithra predates ahura mazda and zoroastrianism. ahura mazda was invented by zoroaster after he debunked and demonized devas and also asura gods such as varuna
@@robertjarman3703 The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society from the late 19th to early 20th century. No Greek except Hermes Trismagistas who is Throth+Hermes
@@derrinerrow4369 I remember them more in Strange Journey, where it starts with Mitra, and then in the refight he transforms into the Zoroastrian Mithra
I believe that Scientific American Magazine has an article suggested one of the reason for the rise of the Mithras cult (and other cults of the time, including Christian) was supported by the realization that the Astrological constellations were moving on the calender. The ideas was that if something was moving the constellations it must be a powerful thing, an new thing, and well that requires new beliefs. This relates to Mithras being stronger than the bull, and so able to move constellations. Or something like that. My memory is long on this one and getting a bit fuzzy Scientific American Magazine December 1989 Volume 261, Issue 6 The Mithraic Mysteries The icons of this ancient Mediterranean cult can be deciphered only in terms of a world-view that placed the powers controlling human destiny not on the earth but in the stars
Alright, so what I'm getting from this introduction to the Ordo Extra Historia is that you *don't* want me to tell all my friends about your awesome channel. Got it!
Mithra (or as more modern Iranians call it, Mehr) was actually a deity of light and sun too! Just to help you make the connection to Sol Invictus easier!
There have been so many secret societies in history that it's kinda funny. There's the more modern ones, the ancient ones, the ones that are actually just resistance cells against occupation (think the French Resistance in WWII), the cults, the various guilds whose secret wisdom was the proper way to turn metal or leather or just about any other craft... Typically it's not that knowing about them is a secret, but what they know is what's secret. I love that you are doing this.
I created my own "cult of mithras" while i was in the service. Basically once a month I made a big feast for the other guys in my unit which i would have in the recreation room in the barracks. I had to submit a written request to reserve the room and get the keys and I wrote in my chicken scratch "CoMmunal meal" as the reason for request. Obviously no mystery rites were performed, but I got a kick out of it. Eventually, people rotated out of the unit, and it fizzled, but it was fun while it lasted.
The Edward Rutherfurd novel SARUM describes the Mithraistic ritual of the *Taurobolium,* a purification ritual involving the exsanguination of a bull. Very interesting.
Any time I think about luring people in via a secret, I'm reminded of a ProZD skit where the character says "Ya gotta tickle their baaaallls a little!!" That hits real different in this video.
Just a note: Catholicism and Christianity had a kind of hierarchy structure long before the Mithras cult (Acts talks about the apostles as being above the other disciples and having special authority in decision making). I am sure where EH get the idea that Christianity had secret knowledge only allowed to be know be priests. The only secret the Christians kept even from outsiders was the Eucharistic beliefs (which were the last thing taught to candidates before being Baptized into the Faith), and even this secrecy only lasted till about the third century (as the writings of Justin Martyr suggest).
From what I understand about the cult of Mithras, calling it a secret society would be… a stretch. People openly worshipped him. It’s just that the temples were underground, and the statues and art of Mithras are admittedly awesome and fit well into our modern idea of a secret pagan cult.
@@dantetre Except describing them as the 7 known celestial bodies would also be technically incorrect as stars are celestial bodies. The only way to be precise would be to make a 3 minute detour in the video to explain a fine a point. Explaining anything simply requires leaving out details.
Please tackle the Nickolas Bourbaki group! It's one of my favorite little secret society through history. And the link between it and Twenty One Pilots music are fascinating.
Theres a sherlock holmes game: crime and punishment. Third case you deal with involves this cult alot. Really neat. Not the most well-known, but I like to know this was a real thing.
Considering You’re Doing Secret Socities/Eccentric Cults; I’d LOVE To See A Series On The Early Christian Gnostics, It’s An Absolutely Fascinating Group!
hey, can you make a series of episode on delhi sultanate or mughal empire ?? or the cholas or the mauryas...... basically a series of a chapter on indian history, will be really appreciated!! and looking for more interesting videos!
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Thanks for Watching!
Epic
WE want the GAZA episode now extra history
You guys are legends 🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤
WE want the Palestine episode ASAP
are the buttons on the cloak a reference to matpat?
Fun fact about the cult of Pythagoras: they were allegedly so put off by irrational numbers that you weren't even told about their existence until you made it to the higher tiers.
edit for some context: These guys lived in a world where all math was based on geometry and modern algebra was well more than a millennia away. In that respect, the idea of a number that you couldn't measure with a ruler and a compass being some kind of abomination isn't THAT silly.
Square root of minus one.
For me, if someone I'm dating mentions the existence of irrational numbers before marriage, giant red flag.
There's an interesting manga about a math teacher being isekai'd into a kid and showing various math tricks and puzzles including irrational numbers as he would really rather be learning to do magic. Weird name though, Search for "my magician senior" and you should find it.
I don't blame them. Math used to make sense
@@ShadowWizard123 If you're on a date when they do this, try getting the waiter's attention by blinking in morse code.
Man, I'd love it if in some ancient text somewhere, someone who was denied membership to one of these cults wrote out the ancient Roman equivalent of "Why won't those stupid idiots let me in their crappy club for jerks?" lol.
Go look up ancient Coliseum graffiti, it's not that, but you can get pretty close i think.
I never knew people could be that petty even back then.
@@Memelord1117 Roman graffiti is such a testament to human nature. "Sorry, ladies, I'm done with you! I, Telsemachus, am only going to sport with men now!" - I have to think a few of the sex workers in the food court the rough equivalent appeared in were relieved to hear this. It's like if MGTOW had a bisexuality clause.
That would have been hilarious! 😂
Funnily enough, I begin my Vampire: the Masquerade campaign tonight, and the Cult of Mithras play a huge role in the lore of that game
Last time I played he was a rather minor background character who woke up and got killed. I guess it's changed a lot since then.
@101Mant if you're playing in the British isles, he's the most important piece of the metaplot, if you're not, he's relatively minor. Which is kind of the nature of vampire lore, it's all as important as you want it to be
I have sent a link of this video to my game group chat.
Funnily I'm also doing the exact same thing, but only first playthrough so no spoilers!
Starting a Chronicle in Victorian England soon. I'm ST, and am very much planning on the cult of Mithras having a substantial place in the plot. Should be fun for the coterie!
The spectrum between what we know today as Organized Religions, Occult Rituals, gentleman's clubs, labor/trade unions/guilds, fraternal orders, and insurance companies is such a fascinating area of history. Not quite fully religious, not quite fully political, not quite fully social, and not quite fully economic, but including aspects of all. It's something that doesn't really compute for us in our thoroughly modern contemporary culture.
Insurance companies? Can I get a discount on vehicle insurance with the right blood ritual? Asking for a friend...
@@georgesears2916 I'm afraid I'm not able to reveal those kinds of secrets to outsiders.....
You forgot to mention multi-level marketing groups - pretty culty if you ask me 😂
@@greatexpectations6577 and Rust developers.
We need like a cult of exercise
One of my favourite places to visit is the London Mithreum! Its an awesome underrated and free place to visit. They use lights and fog to rebuild the temple, it is breathtaking.
i’ve been too! really wonderful, and i had a blast at the 0 level floor crafting area haha
Huh! I never knew that was in London! I shall give it a look when I next travel there!
@@blaster915 you absolutely should, there's also a wall of artefacts including part of a roman door they found in the Thames. Just be sure to book a place online.
the scorpion giving the bull the clamp is such a bizarre detail lol
But not exactly surprising, given how thirsty the Romans were.
That's probably how they got people to join. "C'mon dude, tell me, what's the deal with the scorpion?" "Can't tell you, that knowledge is for member's only"
K. Here’s a hint. Don’t be so literal. They’re constellations. 😑
Just like the zodiac in Gravity Falls, the symbols don’t have to be literal.
Give em the clamps!
AFAIK the oldest secret society known was the cult of Ceres and Persephone at Eleusis, from where the word "mystery" as commonly used stems ( a "mystery" was originally just a religious rite based on an event of its founding mythos, but since theirs were the ones whose existence was the most well-known, while also being the most unknown, it ended with its current meaning).
Hi, major classical religion nerd here. The Eleusinian Mysteries are interesting, in that they are the oldest example of a 'Mystery' in the Greek and Roman worlds, that is a set of rituals that were supposed to be secret to non-initiates. The Mysteries, however, were not much of an organised group nor were they *that* secret. The Mysteries literally consisted of a single, drawn out ritual involving a procession from Athens to Eleusis and back, ritual ordeals, and most likely a ritual encounter with the goddess Demeter. That's it. Some people did the ritual multiple times in their life, but it's closer to a very elaborate baptism you're not allowed to tell anyone about than a real secret society. And as I said, it also wasn't *that* secret. Some estimates have the majority of the Athenian citizen population be initiated in the mysteries, as they weren't really that picky. While the Eleusinian Mysteries were certainly uniquely unorganised and loose, it is worth mentioning many other Mystery Cults (especially the older ones) were similarly more a 'thing we do every so often but don't tell anyone about', rather than a full blown secret society like the Mithraics (and even the Mithraics appear to have been limited to a bunch of mostly independant local chapter houses).
From what we can tell based on a couple of snitches throughout history, the Eleusinian Mysteries seem to have been a ritual to ensure a good afterlife (again, similar to a baptism). They seem to have included a ritual encounter with death, from which Demeter 'saved' the inititate. If you're wondering why Demeter, she was actually a major cthonic goddess to many Greeks. Not only is her daughter Persephone, but she herself was often seen as a goddess of rebirth and reincarnation. The idea appeared to have been that she caused grain to emerge from the ground, life from death, and could therefore also bring the dead back to life (although not in a Christian style resurrection, I don't actually know if the details of this afterlife-belief are known).
@@aquos4176 It's certainly interesting. The only other thing I know about Demeter's life-giving/keeping powers is that myth about the seasons, and I've heard that the usual take on it, that it's winter when Persephone goes back to Hades, is mostly a current misunderstanding, and that it's in fact summer (seems like summers in Ancient Greece were scorching, plus it makes a lot of sense given that one of the people she goes to ask about her daughter during that season, and the one that provides her with an answer, is Helios).
@@aquos4176 They are very interesting, I think the term mystery comes from the fact each person had their own experience induced from the use of some kind of drug the Greeks figured out how to cultivate, which given that Greek society had spirituality and religion woven into the fabric of their unspoken social norms, that materialized into an encounter with their deity. Each person that did this died before they died, came to terms with death, and was enlightened from the burden of death on the soul. We today call that an ego death. If your a greek and you've never consumed this drug let alone in a ritual setting, and everyone tells you your about to meet a god, your mind will make it so. But the experience you have can't be conveyed through retelling it to someone else, because communing with your inner self and experiencing death is an experience unique to you, a mystery to everyone else. That is the mystery.
Humans are afraid of death, we have an instinct to preserve ourselves up until the last moments, so when people walk into a temple, events occur, and they come out totally at peace with themselves and no longer fear their death and are ready for it. That is enlightenment. That's puzzling and the Greeks were known for thinking pretty hard about such concepts. It's particularly interesting that these sorts of spiritual practices seem to happen in different societies, across different periods of time, with these people having no remote contact what so ever with each other. A ritual, an encounter with a deity, an experience of death, coming to terms, and leading to enlightenment.
Who controls the British crown?~
Who keeps the metric system down?~
We do, we do~
Ahh the stonecutters lol
Welcome to stone cutters 2.0
Rules:
no Homers
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?~
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?~
We do, we do~
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
WE DO, WE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It's quite likely this series will mention the inspiration for the Stonecutters, The Freemasons!
Fun fact: the Dionysian cult was chthonic (focusing on gods and rituals relating to death) and discussed wine as a metaphor for death and rebirth.
The wine had many drugs they called people that were able to use the drugs Jesus. Was a a titel😢
So was mithraism, one of the things mithras is responsible for (at least in its persian form) is literally death and rebirth (hence the scorpion/cancer getting the seed out of the bulls testicles so a new bull will be born)
Like Christianity?
Sounds like Buddhism, Blessed Be.
God I've been obsessed with Mithras and his cult for so long, so glad yall are doing a video on it! I hope there will be mentions of Sol Invictus and the Tauroctony
And if not your welcome to do your own video about it!
Why obsessed?
I remember how Raised by Wolves had Mithraism take Christianity's place and thinking how unrealistic it was. Christianity's whole strength was in NOT being a secret society with elite membership. If Mithraism was to spread the way Christianity did it would have had to reorganize significantly.
I thought the appeal to Christianity was you didn't have to do anything besides convert
@@Makarosc You had to repent of your sins and be baptized. That's not nothing. Also, you'll be worshiping alongside people you would otherwise consider your enemies. Keep in mind Jesus's disciples included tax collectors and zealots, literally traitors and terrorists.
@@chowyee5049one Big Advantage of Christianity over Mithraism is the Christians is Pro-Poor while Mithra adherent are almost exclusively for Rich Folks also Mithraism system of recruitment is almost similar to Fraternity which tend to Exclusiveness to Certain degree of People While early Christianity has no discrimination to join its ranks no matter your Status in Society ie: Poor & Rich , Sinner , Criminals , Romans or Non-Romans aslong you truly repent of your Sin and Pray in the name of Jesus your welcome too the Fold.
Weren't some flavours of gnostic Christianity very mystery-cult-y?
@@Colddirector Gnostics sure. But not proto-orthodox Christians. Gnosticism certainly seeped into the Early Church but they resisted vehemently.
I was about to ask who the pater of the EC society was, but then I realized it's Zoey. Of course it's Zoey.
How dare YOU!!!
She is mater, not pater!
Really? I thought it was Walpole.
@@GeneralLuigiTBC Would have been Ibn Battuta, were he not frequently away on sidetrips.
@@jorgelotr3752 Maybe they can give him an Emeritus role.
0:52 IS THAT THE FIRST FULL ARM EVER DRAWN??
Yes
No
Extra History history has been made
maybe I don’t know
i thought something felt weird
Just came from the series on early chirstian schisms and loved seeing how this series has developped over the years. I always love how accessible these ideas are made, yet how much I still learn. Thanks so much for sticking with this and producing great content!
Mithras (well, the ghosts of his worshippers) appeared briefly in Mark of Athena, a book in the Percy Jackson series
Real talk - LOVE THIS! You need to tackle the Eleusinian Mysteries!!
Please do the Greek war of independence of 1821 against the ottoman empire next
I've been asking for this since the first episodes of the sengoku Jidai!!
I want a part on Byron, the poet, joining it and wanting to sell his estate to keep financing his Albanian troops. It's crazy!
@@KasumiRINA IKR fascinating story
ζήτω η Ελλάδα!!!
I am from Iraq, I am interested in this too
Yes Extra History time!!! Lets gooo
Amazing as always!
ETA: Ali did an amazing job with the art!
Cuuuuttteeee
This is probably your coolest series concept ever. I’d love to see history series on other more pop culture or obscure topics like music!
- But what does it mean?
- Noone know what it means but its provocative.
-No its not.
-IT GETS THE PEOPLE GOING
she sells sanctuary reference is crazy. (For those who don't know, the band who made that song is called the cult)
One of my favorites.
She's a 'Fire Woman'😜🤘🤘
@jon-paulfilkins7820 and shes to blame.
Totally dig the Cult, loved em since the 80s.🤟
Woohoo!! It's time for more EH!! Very excited to see how this series goes! 😄
They are a little 'eh' but pretty good overall.
I always enjoyed seeing the remains of the Temple of Mithras in central London - these were at ground level on a plaza so you could just walk up and view them. They've since been restored to their proper subterranean location, situated below the Bloomberg HQ.
First time I heard about the Cult of Mithras was from a Doctor Who audio drama ("Seasons of Fear") taking place at the time in a Roman fort at Hadrian's wall during the late Empire. It caused me to look it up afterwards. It's fascinating to learn about!
There’s a wonderful church in Rome, San Clemente, which is a 15th century church built above a 5th century church built above a 1st century Mithraeum - one of my favourite sites in the city
Really enjoyed the presentation of this series- looking forward to climbing the ranks
There's actually one possible missing link that could explain the noticeable discrepancy and evolution of Mithras and that is the royal cult of Mithras in Commagene and later Pontus, it's actually interesting how the Persianate religions of the areas adopted the elements of Zoroastrian religions that most fitted their scaled-down versions of the Persian imperial cult often focusing on the role of the king as an enactor of the law of Mazda, the Heavenly God's master of armies and champion, a role that was taken in the Heaven by Mitra quite often.
In synthesis, Azura Mazda gives unto Mitra the solemn duty of enacting his will and Mitra gives unto the emperor *his* solemn duty to enact his, it's basically a martial hierarchy based on vows of loyalty and pledges of allegiance, something Mitra is the god of, something that is important for a king and his generals and "vassals".
At times the more esoteric and difficult to grasp Asura Mazda was simply dropped as what was important to the royal cult was the idea of Mitra as a god that fights evil and upholds the cosmic order, duties he can then entrust to the king as his earthly aid de camp thus giving him a heavenly mandate.
It's an interesting theory one that I would say holds water
mithra predates ahura mazda and zoroastrianism. ahura mazda was invented by zoroaster after he debunked and demonized devas and also asura gods such as varuna
An episode about the order of the Assasins would be epic
Me: Walking down a dark pathway
The looming figure with a blindfold behind me: hey buddy, you wanna join my club?
I use Mithras a lot in like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, so thanks for explaining this.
Tje beggining of yet another amazing series! Loved this one guys! You're the Best❤❤❤😊😊😊
I hope yinz cover the Hermetic Orders of the 20th century, such as The Golden Dawn
We will!
@@extrahistoryawesome ❤❤❤❤
@@extrahistory I'm SO waiting for the Aleister Crowley cameo.
Wait, Golden Dawn? The Greek ultranationalist group?
@@robertjarman3703 The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society from the late 19th to early 20th century. No Greek except Hermes Trismagistas who is Throth+Hermes
I can't look at Mithras/Mithra/Mitra without thinking about the Shin Megami Tensei equivalents. Still cool to learn.
Mithras was pretty useful in my Persona 3 Reload run, and not just for the Theurgy with Siegfried
@@derrinerrow4369 I remember them more in Strange Journey, where it starts with Mitra, and then in the refight he transforms into the Zoroastrian Mithra
LOVED the setup for this series! Nailed the vibes 👌
4:07 Nope, you’re not the only one. Great music reference!
The use of "CE" for a date stamp tells us everything.
1:46 I got jumpscared by ordo coming on to my screen. For a split-second I thought somehow they knew I was watching 😅
I believe that Scientific American Magazine has an article suggested one of the reason for the rise of the Mithras cult (and other cults of the time, including Christian) was supported by the realization that the Astrological constellations
were moving on the calender. The ideas was that if something was moving the constellations it must be a powerful thing, an new thing, and well that requires new beliefs.
This relates to Mithras being stronger than the bull, and so able to move constellations.
Or something like that. My memory is long on this one and getting a bit fuzzy
Scientific American Magazine
December 1989
Volume 261, Issue 6
The Mithraic Mysteries
The icons of this ancient Mediterranean cult can be deciphered only in terms of a world-view that placed the powers controlling human destiny not on the earth but in the stars
Love this series! As a newbie Dungeon Master, these historical secret socieities and cults are giving me A LOT of ideas. 🤔
The first rule of Ordo Extra Historia is... tell EVERYBODY about Extra History!
Alright, so what I'm getting from this introduction to the Ordo Extra Historia is that you *don't* want me to tell all my friends about your awesome channel. Got it!
Mithra (or as more modern Iranians call it, Mehr) was actually a deity of light and sun too! Just to help you make the connection to Sol Invictus easier!
Your guys editing keeps getting better.
Thank you!
There have been so many secret societies in history that it's kinda funny. There's the more modern ones, the ancient ones, the ones that are actually just resistance cells against occupation (think the French Resistance in WWII), the cults, the various guilds whose secret wisdom was the proper way to turn metal or leather or just about any other craft... Typically it's not that knowing about them is a secret, but what they know is what's secret. I love that you are doing this.
When I hear the word cult. I think of one little jingle.
Come along, you belong! Feel the fizz of Kookoo Kola!
i went to the london mithraeum at the bloomberg building, truly a must-go
I created my own "cult of mithras" while i was in the service. Basically once a month I made a big feast for the other guys in my unit which i would have in the recreation room in the barracks. I had to submit a written request to reserve the room and get the keys and I wrote in my chicken scratch "CoMmunal meal" as the reason for request. Obviously no mystery rites were performed, but I got a kick out of it. Eventually, people rotated out of the unit, and it fizzled, but it was fun while it lasted.
The Edward Rutherfurd novel SARUM describes the Mithraistic ritual of the *Taurobolium,* a purification ritual involving the exsanguination of a bull. Very interesting.
My favorite part is how allys baby how grown now it’s a little tot🥹 so wholesome
Reverse 1999 brought me here. Irrational numbers was something I heard about.
Yes along with the bean thing.
10:42 is this the first appearance of Jamie's dog along with Zoey??
ALWAYS look forward to your videos guys! 😊😊😊❤❤❤❤
LOLed at the The Cult Sanctuary reference. Didn't expect that.
We now need a Cult Of Extra History
You speak as if there isn't one already.
im not religious in any form of the word, but i sure do like learning about them
The She Sells Sanctuary reference made me so happy! Its my village's mad dance song!
2:25
HA! JOKES ON YOU! NOW MY HISTORY TEACHERS WATCHS YOU AND SUBSCRIBED 😎
I've been to the site at Hadrian’s Wall! Really interesting!
Thanks for the video!
Oooo I knew about this one from the Mary Stewart Merlin books. Highly recommend
This is the best channel ive ever seen fr
I am so hype for this!
OH YEAH THE CULT OF MITHRAS! I remember learning it from that Sherlock Holmes game, Crimes and Punishment.
I’m playing through Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishets right now and the third case is heavily involved with Mithraism.
You should make a series on the Treaty of Versailles for WW1's 110 year Anniversary.
Any time I think about luring people in via a secret, I'm reminded of a ProZD skit where the character says "Ya gotta tickle their baaaallls a little!!" That hits real different in this video.
please make a video series about the Khmer-Champa wars and one about the history of the Swahili coast
I’d explain some things, but I value my membership just a little more than my enjoyment of these videos.
Just a note: Catholicism and Christianity had a kind of hierarchy structure long before the Mithras cult (Acts talks about the apostles as being above the other disciples and having special authority in decision making). I am sure where EH get the idea that Christianity had secret knowledge only allowed to be know be priests. The only secret the Christians kept even from outsiders was the Eucharistic beliefs (which were the last thing taught to candidates before being Baptized into the Faith), and even this secrecy only lasted till about the third century (as the writings of Justin Martyr suggest).
Yup. In order for a Religion to be spread to the masses it had to be widely known. That's why these Mystery religions never caught on.
From what I understand about the cult of Mithras, calling it a secret society would be… a stretch. People openly worshipped him. It’s just that the temples were underground, and the statues and art of Mithras are admittedly awesome and fit well into our modern idea of a secret pagan cult.
Oh, I read about this in Percy Jackson. Funny, that, though crazy the books may be
Zoey in a robe cracks me up every time!
it;s been years since I watched Extra History and I can't believe you guys got rid of the iconic bad mic audio
6:25 Correction! Seven known celestial bodies, not planets.
Uranus and Neptune was only discovered after 1781 and 1846.
The sun and moon were considered planets back then.
@@MarquisForneus that doesn't mean that a modern UA-camr can consider them as planets too...
Knowledge matters!
@@dantetre Except describing them as the 7 known celestial bodies would also be technically incorrect as stars are celestial bodies. The only way to be precise would be to make a 3 minute detour in the video to explain a fine a point.
Explaining anything simply requires leaving out details.
Woo excited to watch more!
Please tackle the Nickolas Bourbaki group! It's one of my favorite little secret society through history. And the link between it and Twenty One Pilots music are fascinating.
That was definitely the best intro for in episode I have ever saw
Mithras goes hard as hell, such a mysterious cult with interesting ideals. I wish there was more to know.
by 8:40 I'm realizing you're just describing the VFW Post.... LOL
I love this series already!
i like to wait for all parts so i can binge. but im so excited because i love learning about cults ❤❤❤❤
Cults and Sects can make the religions in your RPG setting really pop.
4:50 especially the Mithraeum in London, ahem, Londinium.
"Gorgeous weather"
Meanwhile here in New Hampshire we' re experiencing a second winter.
Ah history and secret societies every assassins creed fans favorite things. Kudos Extra history to shedding light on this subject
Oh yes, I am SO here for this series!!
Now that's a series that got my full attention and interest!
I am so excited for this series!
Theres a sherlock holmes game: crime and punishment.
Third case you deal with involves this cult alot. Really neat.
Not the most well-known, but I like to know this was a real thing.
Considering You’re Doing Secret Socities/Eccentric Cults; I’d LOVE To See A Series On The Early Christian Gnostics, It’s An Absolutely Fascinating Group!
I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos series on the topic, especially the one on the Sol Invictus
I LOVE THIS TOPIC, I LOVE THE CULT OF MITHRAS STORY
Why did you guys have so much fun with this episode?
love all your videos excellent idea to write about secret societies, it is a very interesting topic.
IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS MINI SERIES
WOOOOO let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Great video.
hey, can you make a series of episode on delhi sultanate or mughal empire ?? or the cholas or the mauryas...... basically a series of a chapter on indian history, will be really appreciated!! and looking for more interesting videos!
love the intro, love this channel!!!!