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Monumentum

Fresco ‘City of Darkness’ from Hawarte

The City of Darkness unique fresco from the Mithraeum of Hawarte shows the tightest links between the western and eastern worship of Mithras in Roman Syria.
  • The City of Darkness fresco of the Hawarte Mithraeum

    The City of Darkness fresco of the Hawarte Mithraeum
    Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology 

  • The City of Darkness fresco of the Hawarte Mithraeum

    The City of Darkness fresco of the Hawarte Mithraeum
    Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology 

 
 
The New Mithraeum
21 Aug 2021
Updated on Nov 2023
 

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The painting found in the inner sanctuary called City of Darkness by the excavator is so far unique in Mithraic iconography. There are seven shaggy heads visible behind a castle wall. One of these persons seems to be preparing to escape, but all of them are caught by seven light rays. Following Richard Gordon, Gawlikowski interpreted the representations as the fight of the „good” against the „bad”: the strange demon-like figures in the scenes of the antechamber and in the „City of Darkness” paintings seemed to reflect the impact of the dualism of persian religion and, according to

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