The journey of the initiate towards salvation and the trials of Mithras seen through the experience of Hercules and the protection of Mithras, Hercules, and Caelestis: labors and salvation

This intervention focuses on the close relationship that links Mithras to Hercules, witnessed by the presence of the image of Hercules in some mithraic caves, on ritual vessels and in other contexts related to Zoroastrian Mithraism, such as the funerary monument of Antiochus I of Commagene at Nemrut Dağı. Likewise, even the veneration of the goddess Caelestis by some followers of Mithras is testified by the representation of the symbol pro itu et reditu in contexts referable to the cult of Mithras.