The Signs of the MITHRAISM which prevailed in Iran before the emerging of Zoroaster are observed in literary works and especially epic poems. The evidences show the relationship between Pishdadian and Kianian dynasties and the "Mehr cult". The kings of these two ancient dynasties worshipped the moon and the sun and elements generalities before Zoroaster according to Birooni's Asar-al-Baghiyeh.By studying of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and some Pahlavi texts one can deliver evidence based on the relationship between kings such as: Fereidoon; Jamshid; Siavosh and Keykhosrow and "Mehr cult". Among these the story of Keykhosrow is related to the birth and ascension of Izad Mehrs myth. The birth of this king who is considered as the most goo'd-natured fabulous king of Iran at a dark night and his birth and growth among shepherds is related to "Mehr" in terms of shepherds' care and presence. His prayer before the sun and his washing customs before praying resemble Mehr rituals. Also his ascension to sky and the scared dinner - customs or "Izad Mehr" ascension are the facts which refer to MITHRAISM.This research tries to study Keykhosrow's personality in Shahnameh using ancient researches and ancient religious texts considering their relationship to "Methraism".

MITHRAISM is a religion of ancient Persia. Mithra, which had a close relation to the Sun and are usually mistaken, was worshipped as a deity, This religion disappeared after the Iranians accepted Islam. MITHRAISM terminology could be seen in some literary works. Khaqani who resided in Shervan - a neighborhood of Armenia (center of MITHRAISM for sometimes) - uses concepts from MITHRAISM and Christianity in his poetical works. Use of praise for Mithra, Mithra in red, Sun's ritual bathing, Mithra's attack on cow, the lion and the sun all prove this claim. Khaqani also names some renowned literary characters related to MITHRAISM.

This article intends to take an intertextual approach to investigate relationship between works of art, especially visual works of MITHRAISM _ as pretext _ and Christianity. For this purpose, pictorial samples including eight themes of birth, sanctity of water and baptism, image of mother and child, the Last Supper, ascension and resurrection, sanctity of red, apostles and crucifixes were selected from both religions. Then, visual samples were selected according to these themes and their relationship was described with intertextual approaches. Intertextuality is basically a literary _ artistic theory which believes there is no text without a pretext. This theory, which first was raised by Julia Kristeva, focuses on intertextual relations in production and reading process of texts. There are two types of intertextuality in general: production and reading intertextuality. Production type pay attention to pretexts of work in production process, that is examining the works that have played a role in the production of subsequent works. In addition, there are different types of intertextuality studies. for instance, transtextuality is one of them which introduced by Gerrard Genette. Genette describes transtextuality as all that sets the text in a relationship whether obvious or concealed, with other texts. Transtextuality can be include a varieties types of text relationships: Intertextuality, Paratextuality, Metatextuality, Architextuality and Hypertextuality. Intertextuality is as a relationship of copresence between two texts or among several texts. A tittle, a subtitle, intertitles, prefaces, postfaces, notices, forewords and etc are paratext. Metatextuality is the relationship most often labeled commentary. By architextuality Genette means the entire set of general or transcendent categories types of discourse, modes of enunciation, literary geners from which emerges each singular text. By Hypertextuality he means any relationship uniting a text B (hypertext) to an earlier text A (hypotext) upon which it is grafted in a manner that is not that of commentary. The hypothesis of the present article is this: The pretexts of some Christian works of art is Mithraic works. To prove this hypothesis, some works of Christian art were analyzed using intertextual approach. The results led to proof of this hypothesis. In intertextual study of works of arts from two religions, different approaches of intertextuality were used: Genette transtextuality, Jenny approaches, Riffaterre intertextuality and etc. Intertextual relations in Mithraic and Christian works sometimes have an in-sign identity and sometimes an inter-sign basis. In some case studies, the pretext and text both are from one semiotic system but in others, the semiotic systems are different. The discovery of intertextual relationships between the study bodies of this paper also indicates intercultural relationships, MITHRAISM and Christian societies have two different cultures. The method of this research is historical _ analytical, its data is gathered via library source and by referring to books, articles and sites. The results of this article indicate that due to the common themes between MITHRAISM and Christian, there are strong relationships between them in different aspects and we can consider Mithraic works as pretexts for Christian works of art.

It’ s about more than 3 thousand years that the Iranians have celebrated “ Yald” in 21th December. This day is celebrated in the Christian world at the birth of Christ, which was changed to December 25th in the fourth century AD due to the mistake of calculating leap years. Many churches throughout Europe have been marked by many signs of MITHRAISM in the early centuries of Christianity. For the church, MITHRAISM was intrusive, and its memorials from the Roman Empire show that it is welcoming and gratifying among the people. Clergies have tried a lot to vanish MITHRAISM. So by their attempts, MITHRAISM was a forgotten name for a long period in Europe, and even in the 15th and 16th centuries, archeologists considered MITHRAISM memorials as a symbol of mythical gods and heroes of Rome. But in recent years, by studying the Scriptures, there are many similarities between the symbolic characteristics of this religion and Christianity. The influence of the Mihr on the Western lands and the survival of its origins in Christianity, as well as its survival as pictorial symbols that are repeated or re-established in the next period, have confirmed the adoption of firm foundations of MITHRAISM, which has been able to accept changes in Concepts but preserve several characters such as symbols, shapes, or vice versa, by preserving concepts and changing its manifestation such as form and manner, survive to the present time as a one of most popular religion in early Christianity. This led officiates to acquire the manifestations of MITHRAISM and entering them into Christianity, in order to gather followers and attract fans towards themselves through capturing the appearance of MITHRAISM, and sometimes even by adding some of concepts of this popular rite such as the "Prophet of Peace and kindness and the Savior". This article deals with this question: what are the common symbolic features of Christianity? It was concluded that the commonality of these two religions is not only in the symbolic appearances, which is also often found in the basic concepts and paths of conduct. Moreover, we could result that in a specific period of time these tow religions could attract a lot of people due to the promising and at the same time kind character, which could help suffering peoples and soothe their pains. In this regard, the descriptive-analytical method and the library and observational method are used.

In thoughts of ancient Iranian tribes, divine elements have a special place. These elements in MITHRAISM were considered sacred. The believers of Mithraic mysteries suggested that spirits came from heavens to the earth and dwelled in the bodies. In order to be purified, these spirits were to go through seven STAGES. MITHRAISM makes mention of a seven steps ladder as the symbol of the seven layers of heavens that must be past for being able to reach to the supreme position. Shahnameh makes mention of Kavus attempt for building seven homes on the mountain of Albourz of gold, silver, glass and granite. The present article shows that these seven palaces are the reminders of the ladder of the believers of Mehr.

Problem statement: The long ancient history of Iranian culture and civilization has witnessed the transformation of pre-Islamic holy figures and places associated with MITHRAISM, which later turned into sacred places and figures in new beliefs. Many historical Iranian monuments have remained from the Islamic era, associated with Solomon or other Jewish saints and prophets. The question is“, what are the historical factors and similarities among these myths that associate these memorials to Jamshid, the mythical Persian king, and Jewish saints such as Solomon, the prophet? ”,Research objective: The present research attemptsto study why MITHRAISM shrines have been renamed to monuments attributed to Solomon following the Arab conquest of Sassanid. Research method: This descriptive and analyticalqualitative research is applied research. The study was conducted using bibliographicsearch and examining historical references. Mythology-based approach was used to analyzetwo case studies of Persepolis and a historical shrine in Masjed-Soleyman. Conclusion: After the conquest of Iran by Arabs and forcing Iranians to join and obey the new religion, pre-Islamic Iranian ideological foundations trembled. Survival of ancient Iranian beliefs relied upon the legitimacy that could only be attained through connecting Iranian theology to the saints cited in Islamic traditions and holy books. Hence, the Iranian intelligent mind effectively tried to keep its own cultural identity and protect them from the flood of destruction by attributing its religious temples to the Jewish prophets (also honored by Muslims). This tremendous intellectual movement and historical ingenuity have led Persian myths associated with sacrednesssuch as the Prophet Solomon. Given this analysis, the reason why many ancient Iranian monuments have been attributed to Solomon, his mother, or other Jewish prophets was uncovered.

In the archetype of sacrifice, the element of sacrifice is chosen according to the type of culture, religion, livelihood, etc. Cow, as an ancient myth in the mythological story of genesis in Iran is a prominent element of sacrifice and this was an important part of the ritual. Through shedding cow's blood, the earth was revived, and through eating his flesh, the followers of the religion could be immortal. However, after Zoroastrianism, several reasons such as opposition to symbols of Mythraism propagating monotheism, and the necessity of settlement and development of civilization, the sacrifice of cow was opposed, and Zoroastrianism respected its life, but there have been reports of sacrificing cows in Zoroastrianism, suggesting the need to carry out this ritual, to help the fertility of the land and reviving the life cycle. Nevertheless, the reaction Zoroastrianism showed to the sacrifice of cow shifted the myth of immortality and protecting earth to a new level, and rationalized the mythological themes. This study, accordingly, analyzes the archetype of sacrificing cow in MITHRAISM and Zoroastrianism borrowing Jung's theory and a descriptive-analytic research method.

MITHRAISM, as one of the oldest Iranian religions, used mythical symbols to lead its followers which can be the leader of the audience for an accurate understanding of the various aspects of these symbols in this ritual. Mehrabeh, as the sanctuaries of the followers of this ritual, have a symbolic structure; they are either built in natural caves or form a cave. In this study, based on the mythological and religious views of Mircea Eliadeh, the cave symbol and the its functions in various texts, have been investigated, using the analysis of Eliadeh in its various works, the authors have tried to study the symbolic function of the cave in the religion of MITHRAISM. The symbolic function of the cave in MITHRAISM, should be categorize in the subtitle of the "symbolic place of the ritual of sympathy", which is itself linked to "the womb of the mother earth" and "the inner and unconscious world", Based on the new classification presented in this study and study of the Eliadeh's works...

Our presupposition is that Bizhan, a young hero from Gudarz, prior to his travel to his utopia, decides to acquire the theoretical STAGES of MITHRAISM under the guidance of the spiritual leader to pass a practical test and prove himself to be the eligible wayfarer and enter the circle of Mithraists. Regarding the sovereignty of sun-worshipping in Ashkanian era lots of similarities are seen between the seven STAGES of MITHRAISM and seven STAGES of Bizhan's travelling; at the same time, there also appears many similarities between these ceremonial stances and usual seven epical adventures.We have tried, in this research, by adding documents and evidences, to endorse our theory scientifically.

In symbolic Persian mythology, lighting and light has arisen from the dome of the sky. The sky has been imagined like as a dome of rock, that light has born from it. From the aspect of mythology, borns of Mithra from a rock cliff, is the metamorphosis of same myth. This symbol along with other symbolic images which originated from Mehr’s stories and concepts whom was the Saoshyant of Iranian people in old periods, had changed a lot during centuries and in variety forms has had multiple appearances in the symbolic and visual history of this land. In this article Symptoms and traces of this ancient religion, which had the global spread, has been reviewed and analyzed from the pictorial aspects and the concepts embodied in it. because Mehr rituals is one of the religions in which iconic images as the visual language to transfer of concepts and principles of this religion and its followers have been used and over time, sometimes with the same meanings hidden in these images and keep them next centuries with changes in the same way and with the broader concept have been used.The basis of this research is a comparative study Research documents and citing the mythology, history and religions of ancient Iran, and especially by sources close to the Avesta, the symbols of the conceptual approach have introduced and then by searching the traces of Mehri ritual elements, their symbolic roles in different periods of Iranian art and related samples have been investigated. This text wants to consider the MITHRAISM elements which are come to the other artistic motifs during centuries by comparative view and with descriptive and analysis methods.The results are shown in 4 paradigms.A lot of motifs from MITHRAISM tradition are seen in later periods.Those motifs which are seen in other artistic works carried the same meaning as MITHRAISM motifs.Some motifs are omitted because of conflicts which were existed between them and the principles of that time.Most of MITHRAISM motifs are used as ornamental motifs in later periods.