. The
identification of Bel with Ahura-Mazda in Cappadocia results from the
Aramaic inscription of Jarpuz (Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil_, III, {265} p.
59; Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris fuer semit. Epigraphik_, I, pp. 59 ff.). The Zeus
Stratios worshiped upon a high summit near Amasia was in reality
Ahura-Mazda, who in turn probably supplanted some local god (_Studia
Pontica_, pp. 173 ff.).--Similarly the equation Anahita = Ishtar = Ma or
Cybele for the great female divinity is accepted everywhere (_Mon. myst.
Mithra_, I, p. 333), and Ma takes the epithet [Greek: aniketos] like Mithra
(_Athen. Mitt._, XVIII, 1893, p. 415, and XXIX, 1904, p. 169). A temple of
this goddess was called [Greek: hieron Astartes] in a decree of Anisa
(Michel, _Recueil_, No. 536, l. 32).

30. The Mithra "mysteries" are not of Hellenic origin (_Mon. myst. Mithra_,
I, p. 239), but their resemblance to those of Greece, which Gruppe insists
upon (_Griech. Mythologie_, pp. 1596 ff.) was such that the two were bound
to become confused in the Alexandrian period.

31. Harnack (_Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, p. 271) sees in this
exclusion of the Hellenic world a prime cause of the weakness of the Mithra
worship in its struggle against Christianity. The mysteries of Mithra met
the Greek culture with the culture of Persia, superior in some respects.
But if it was capable of attracting the Roman mind by its moral qualities,
it was too Asiatic, on the whole, to be accepted without repugnance by the
Occidentals. The same was true of Manicheism.

32. _CIL_, III, 4413; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 281.

33. Cf. the bibliography at the head of the notes for this chapter.

34. As Plato grew older he believed that he could not explain the evils of
this world without admitting the existence of an "evil soul of the world"
(Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, II, p. 973, p. 981, n. 1). But this late
conception, opposed as it is to his entire system, is probably due to the
influence of Oriental dualism. It is found in the Epinomis (Zeller,
_ibid._, p. 1042, n. 4), where the influence of "Chaldean" theories is
undeniable; cf. Bidez, _Revue de Philologie_, XXIX, 1905, p. 319.

35. Plutarch, _De Iside_, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, V, p.
188; Eisele, _Zur Demonologie des Plutarch_ (_Archiv fuer Gesch. der
Philos._, XVII), 1903, p. 283 f.--Cf. _infra_, n. 40. {266}

36. Arnobius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some exact
information on the doctrin