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.

Bijan and Manijeh is the love story of Bijan, the son of Giv and a great Persian warrior, and Manijeh, the daughter of Afrasiab, the king of Turan and greatest enemy of Iran.The story has a deep connection with Mithraism and the seven labors of heroes (Haft-Khan). After the process of learning Mithraism, Bijan begins his journey to Arman with the intention of killing wild boars (symbol of slaying dragons). And in Turan he practices ascetic, sleeping in grave, travelling in dark and cold roads.The present article, studying the story of Bijan and Manijeh, tries to show the mystic aspects of the story with respect to Mithraism.

Architecture and art is the best form of emergence of human attitude towards religious rituals and importance such rituals hold. In ancient Persia one of the most significant ritualistic foundations to form the space has been Mithraic beliefs. The importance of architectural design in Mithraic temples is presented in various periods of art and architecture in Iran and other parts of the globe based on the complexity of Mithraic mysteries. The art affected by Mithraism has been transformed in the passage of time into distinct meaning. Although, astrology and studying the heavenly bodies has been a very major issue among the followers, but in general studies on the Mithraic temples always taken place with a focus on interior architectural design of the Mithraeum, and unfortunately the external environment of the temple and natural elements are missing in previous studies. Purpose of presents study is to survey and evaluate the Mithraic temple appearance based on the available documents and buildings identified up to the present day. According to the explanatory-descriptive survey research methods and studying the ritualistic evidences and available papers and articles, and eventually, evaluating the Mithraic temple appearance we got to the conclusion that despite the fundamental structural changes in Mithraic temples from cave temples into underground Mithraeums in various parts of the world and in long periods of time, the general axis of design in Mithraic temples is the nocturnal landscape.

Mithraism, as one of the oldest religions in the world, dates back to the pre-Zoroastrian era. Mithra is god of covenant and light; he is opposed to chaos, drought, disobedience and lie, and is known as a warrior. Due to the specific characteristics of this god, Mithraism spread in many parts of Iran. Surviving legends in some parts of Iran have mythological themes and are rooted in some religious beliefs. In the present research, by using descriptive-analytical method, the influence of Mithraic beliefs on Lori legends is examined. We study the legends that have been written in Persian language and have been collected from Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces. The reader will realize that some of the mythological and religious beliefs of Mithraism, while maintaining their functionality, and some others through transformations, have taken root in Lori legends. Some of these beliefs are as follows: how to be born, warfare, fertility, and phenomena related to sun, cock, crow, eagle, soldier, fire, number seven and cow.

Aryan Iran is cradle of Mithraism, a mysterious religion that traversed the cultural and religious borders and spread in all of the world. So the mystical beliefs of Mithraists and many of their mores and cults become as a part of Iranian and world’s people historical heritage and culture. The influence of this ancient religion on Zoroastrianism, Christianty and Islamic mysticism is well known. The traces of Mitra, the great Iranian ancient deity and the goddess of light, can be clearly seen in Persian historical and literary texts. Some of Mithraic thoughts are presented in Tarikh-e Balami (history of Balami), by Abu Ali Muhammad Bal’ami. Many of issues about Iranian culture and civilization are widely reported in the book. By using analytic method, the present article tries to examine Mithraic themes in Tarikh-e Balami.

Mithraism and Zoroastrianism, the ancient Iranian religions, are rooted in the culture of this country; consequently, their reflections are vividly evident in Persian literature. The prominent Iranian poet Nizami Ganjavi utilized these cults allegorically and symbolically in his two prominent versified stories of Haft Paikar, and Khosro and Shirin. This paper aims at discussing the primary samples of allegorical and symbolic uses in Nizami’s Haft Paikar, a number of which are as follows: Bahram in his multiple aspects as the name of a deity in Mithraism and a king in Zoroastrianism; the frequent use of Gonbad standing for the fire temple in the story; Seven Palaces for seven Princesses; seven as a significant number in Mithraism and Zoroastrianism; the comparison of the seven princesses’ portraits on the Khovarnagh palace ceiling with the seven stars on Mithraic temples; and finally an analogy between Bahram’s passage from the first Gonbad to the seventh in Nizami’s story with the initiation rituals of going through seven steps in Mithraic tradition.

Mithraism was a mystery religion centered on the god Mithras that was practiced in the ancient world including India, Iran, Anatolia, Etc. There is still much uncertainty about its nature and its origin, despite numerous documents such as the most ancient religious books of the world including the Avesta and Rig Veda, and the oldest inscriptions including: Boğ azkö y and Achaemenid inscriptions, and finding hundreds of temples in the territory of ancient Rome. One of the ambiguities is that how the temples of this religious tradition were built in Iran. The main question here is that “ is there any possible similarities in Iranian temples to the European types or not? ” To investigate the question, the plans and architectural spaces and components of the Mithra temples are compared using inductive methods and library studies in two civilizations that are altogether different in terms of their environmental and cultural conditions. The research hypothesis emphasizes the difference between the Roman Mithra temples and Iranian types. Despite that, they have a unique root; however, they have some imagined similarities. Finally, it was found, that different environmental conditions gave rise to a different understanding of religion, and so on. The main purpose of the article is to study and introduce several Iranian Mithra temples. The plan of the Roman temples is rectangular, but a study of the Iranian temples of Abā zar, Varjuvi, and Bā dā miyar (Qadamgā h) showed that the most of them had a dome-shaped space with a circular plan and their walls lacked paintings and sculptures. Nevertheless, as Herodotus has already described, the Qarashirā n temple has square plan in the meantime; such Iranian temples lack authentic decorations inside and out. The results of the research show that what was depicted in the European Mithra temples, was performed during a special ceremony in Iran; a point that all artistic and written sources acknowledge.

One of the main contexts for the reproduction of myths is cultural-belief schools, the schools which are based on religion and modern culture. In these new cultural schools, the reproduction of the myth is sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious; it is sometimes directly and sometimes by alteration and in various forms that take shelter in the deeper layers of modern culture in order to survive. By using comparative-analytical method, the present research tries to show how Mithraic myth of creation is transformed and reproduced in Iranian-Islamic mysticism. It seems that Mithraic myth of creation has manifested in Iranian-Islamic mysticism through the hidden cultural layers and continues its own life in the new form of killing ‘cow of body’ and ‘cow of soul’.

Attitudes of various religions and schools of beauty, plays a decisive role in form of their artworks and contents. In eastern civilizations, in most times for the long time, the art has been accompanied with an artistic view, faith-spiritual or mythological and its purpose was to draw more people into absolute beauty. Examining aspects of cultural and ritual art approach in the East and with the study of ideas, different perspectives and worldviews, we can define an acceptable offer of art and we can take a look at the holy and religious art that is result of the east civilization, with a mythological-literal view. In this paper that is done using a library and analytical-descriptive method, we tried to show that the true art, truth of the beauty and the creator of the beauty and perfection of the creator and the philosophy, in addition to introducing the magnificent original art.

The most mysterious and wonderful story of Mehr is the fight with the primitive bull. Mithrahelps the earth to flourish and fertilize by killing the eternal bull and shedding its blood. This basic idea in Mehr religion influenced many cultures and cults. Belief in different forms of sacrifice as a way to evade evil forces and achieve blessing has been an integral part of the lives of peoplein the Iranian Plateau throughout history. For this reason, some sacred man or animal became the scapegoat for a tribe so that their sacrifice would diminish the sins, pains and sufferings of people. By these actions and using dramatic-ritual methods, people aimed toreconstruct the time and place of cosmic creation sothat they could find happiness and blessing once again by killing the primitive bull. Thus, in a public feast, they all ate a piece of the beef to transfer its power, fertility and blessing to themselves, andreached a sort of unity. This happy sacrificing became one of the themes in Persian literature and was recreated in the works of many poets and writers. Among these, NezamiGanjavi has paid especial attention to the ritual of sacrifice in the storyof "Haft Peykar". By the language of tales, he points to a number of sacrifice-related rituals including regeneration, creation, rain prayer, eclipse, and war. He uses literary devices such as allegory, allusion and ambiguity to draw a new and interesting image of these beliefs and ritual traditions.