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Pottery vessel, known as the Friedberg Crater, decorated with a scorpion, snake, a ladder-like symbol and two handles with a snake coiled around each one, Wetterau Museum, Friedberg (Germany)
Pottery vessel, known as the Friedberg Crater, decorated with a scorpion, snake, a ladder-like symbol and two handles with a snake coiled around each one, Wetterau Museum, Friedberg (Germany)

The Friedberg crater was used in the Mithraic ritual as a honey container. It was presented by a miles (soldier) to a leo (lion) in the course of the initiation ritual of fire. The decorative patterns consisting of the 3 kinds of symbols (ladder, scorpion and snake) represented the way of salvation on the miles in the battlefield. The scorpion and the snake were representatives of the earth and functioned as the givers of a glorious death, after which the miles was deified and joined the company of the other adepts. The three-rung ladder was intimately connected with the symbolism of seven grades and seven heavenly gates.
The ladder was not specifically Mithraic, but the Mithraists willingly accepted it as a symbol of their salvation.

Source: Hommages à Maarten J. Vermaseren. 2 edited by Maarten Jozef Vermaseren, Margreet B. De Boer, T. A. Edridge

Becoming a Lion (a Leo) at the fourth level was an important sign of one's authority and responsibility in the cult. Through their association with Jupiter, Lions were aligned with fire, so honey instead of water was used to baptize and purify them. During the initiation rite, they were not even allowed to touch water. Honey was also put on their tongue to symbolize their pure and cleansing words. As Porphyry tells us: "So in the Lion mysteries, when honey is poured instead of water for unification on the hands of the initiates, they are exhorted to keep them pure from everything distressing, harmful and loathsome, and since he is an initiate of fire, which has a cathartic effect, they use on him a liquid related to fire, rejecting water as inimical to it. They use honey as well to purify the tongue from all guilt." (Nabaz, "The Mysteries of Mithras," p 36)

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Taken on: July 25, 2013
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with pleiades:findspot=118681 pleiades:findspot=118681
Sets appears in:   • Wetterau Museum, Friedberg (Germany)    • Mithraic mysteries   
Camera: Nikon D5100, f/4.8, 1/30 sec, 45mm (=67mm), ISO 2200 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Nikon D5100
Aperture: f/4.8
Exposure Time: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length: 45mm (35mm equivalent: 67mm)
ISO: 2200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Not Defined
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Gain Control: High gain up
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Ver.1.01
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Pottery vessel, known as the Friedberg Crater, decorated with a scorpion, snake, a ladder-like symbol and two handles with a snake coiled around each one, Wetterau Museum, Friedberg (Germany)

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