e Mazdean cult.[30]
Hellenic art lent to the Yazatas that idealized form in which it liked to
represent the immortals, and philosophy, especially that of the Stoics,
endeavored to discover its own physical and metaphysical theories in the
traditions of the magi. But in spite of all these accommodations,
adaptations and interpretations, Mithraism always remained in substance a
Mazdaism blended with Chaldeanism, that is to say, essentially a barbarian
religion. It certainly was far less Hellenized than the Alexandrian cult of
Isis and Serapis, or even that of the Great Mother of Pessinus. For that
reason it always seemed unacceptable to the Greek world, from which it
continued to be almost completely excluded. Even language furnishes a
curious proof of that fact. Greek contains a number of theophorous ([Greek:
theophoros], god-bearing) names formed from those of Egyptian or Phrygian
gods, like Serapion, Metrodoros, Metrophilos--Isidore is in use at the
present day--but all known derivations of Mithra are of barbarian
formation. The Greeks never admitted the god of their hereditary enemies,
and the great centers of Hellenic {149} civilization escaped his influence
and he theirs.[31] Mithraism passed directly from Asia into the Latin
world.

There it spread with lightning rapidity from the time it was first
introduced. When the progressive march of the Romans toward the Euphrates
enabled them to investigate the sacred trust transmitted by Persia to the
magi of Asia Minor, and when they became acquainted with the Mazdean
beliefs which had matured in the seclusion of the Anatolian mountains, they
adopted them with enthusiasm. The Persian cult was spread by the soldiers
along the entire length of the frontiers towards the end of the first
century and left numerous traces around the camps of the Danube and the
Rhine, near the stations along the wall of Britain, and in the vicinity of
the army posts scattered along the borders of the Sahara or in the valleys
of the Asturias. At the same time the Asiatic merchants introduced it in
the ports of the Mediterranean, along the great waterways and roads, and in
all commercial cities. It also possessed missionaries in the Oriental
slaves who were to be found everywhere, engaging in every pursuit, employed
in the public service as well as in domestic work, in the cultivation of
land as well as in financial and mining enterprises, and above all in the
imperial service, where they filled th