Equator was different at the time of the establishment
of Mithra-worship from what it was in the Christian period;
and the Sun instead of standing in the He-lamb, or Aries,
at the Vernal Equinox stood, about two thousand years
earlier (as indicated by the dotted line in the diagram), in this
very constellation of the Bull.[1] The bull
therefore became the symbol of the triumphant God, and the
sacrifice of the bull a holy mystery. (Nor must we
overlook here the agricultural appropriateness of the bull as
the emblem of Spring-plowings and of service to man.)

[1] With regard to this point, see an article in the Nineteenth
Century for September 1900, by E. W. Maunder of the Greenwich
Observatory on "The Oldest Picture Book" (the Zodiac). Mr.
Maunder calculates that the Vernal Equinox was in the centre of
the Sign of the Bull 5,000 years ago. [It would therefore be in
the centre of Aries 2,845 years ago--allowing 2,155 years for the
time occupied in passing from one Sign to another.] At the
earlier period the Summer solstice was in the centre of Leo, the
Autumnal equinox in the centre of Scorpio, and the Winter
solstice in the centre of Aquarius--corresponding
roughly, Mr. Maunder points out, to the positions of the
four "Royal Stars," Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut.


The sacrifice of the Bull became the image of redemption.
In a certain well-known Mithra-sculpture or group, the Sungod
is represented as plunging his dagger into a bull, while
a scorpion, a serpent, and other animals are sucking the
latter's blood. From one point of view this may be taken as