THE SWASTIKA AS REPRESENTATION OF THE SUN OF HELIOS AND MITHRAS

Abstract

At the 20th International Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture, held in Slovenia in 2012, Reza Assasi (2013) presented the paper ‘Swastika: The Forgotten Constellation Representing the Chariot of Mithras’, in which he identified Mithras and his quadriga with the constellation Draco, centre of the zodiac in the map of the stars. Thus he proposed a new interpretation that contradicted that accepted by researchers of the Mithraic religion who associate Mithras with the sun. This article aims to show that, contrary to this new interpretation, Mithras should still be identified with the solar deity. Mithraic iconography and liturgy is analysed in the present work, paying special attention to the relationship between the two solar deities Helios and Mithras. The context in which the swastika is depicted is analysed, demonstrating that it never represented a constellation but instead represented the sun. We follow the theory of David Ulansey (1994), which asserts that Mithras should be identified with the “hypercosmic sun”, the sphere of fire which Greek philosophers located beyond the starry heavens.