"This book provides a new description of Mithraism, one of the mystery cults of the Roman Empire, from the perspective of its initiates. Mithraism, which was centred on the sun god Mithras, is described as a complex of symbolic representations created, apprehended, and transmitted not only in the medium of an extraordinarily rich and detailed iconography, but also in ritual action and language, in cult life and hierarchy, and in the design of its sacred space, the mithraeum."--