{"id": "DISC-0034", "item_id": "ITEM-0020", "source_id": "SRC-0033", "year": "1903", "date_precision": "year", "disclosure_method": "reconstruction", "extent": "summary", "coverage": "Reconstructed from monuments, inscriptions and Christian writers.", "review_status": "unreviewed", "notes": "", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0020", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0017", "name": "Seven-grade initiation system", "secrecy_type": "initiatory_rite", "restricted_to": "Initiates of each grade", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement", "stated_reason": "Not recorded: no Mithraic text explaining the cult survives", "current_status": "discontinued", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A sequence of grades through which initiates advanced, known mainly from inscriptions and images in Mithraic temples.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0017", "name": "Mithraic Mysteries", "tradition_type": "mystery_cult", "founded": "1st century CE", "region": "Roman Empire", "status": "extinct", "wikidata": "Q219903", "notes": "No internal text explaining the cult survives."}, "source": {"id": "SRC-0033", "title": "The Mysteries of Mithra", "author": "Franz Cumont; Thomas J. McCormack, trans.", "original_year": "1903", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "book", "url": "https://archive.org/details/mysteriesmithra00mccogoog", "identifiers": "ia:mysteriesmithra00mccogoog", "provenance": "reconstruction", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "public_domain", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Many of Cumont's interpretations have since been disputed.", "artifacts": []}, "dataset": {"name": "open-arcana", "version": "0.3.0", "metadata_license": "CC0-1.0", "snapshot_sha256": "fd755a0cc0c78cf43dac965d39908085b13b246532d888525645150e391f8e45"}, "quality_issues": [{"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0033", "code": "source_authenticity_unassessed", "message": "Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0033", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}, {"table": "disclosures", "record_id": "DISC-0034", "code": "record_unreviewed", "message": "Record review status is unreviewed; review is not proof of truth."}, {"table": "restricted_items", "record_id": "ITEM-0020", "code": "status_without_dated_evidence", "message": "The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked."}], "claims": [{"id": "CLM-0018", "item_id": "ITEM-0020", "claim_type": "content", "suppression_method": "", "statement": "The initiate advanced through seven grades, named Raven (corax), Occult (cryphius), Soldier (miles), Lion (leo), Persian (Perses), Runner of the Sun (heliodromus) and Father (pater), and on some occasions wore costume suited to the grade.", "period": "Roman Empire, 2nd–4th centuries CE", "claim_support": "contradicted", "supporting_source_ids": "SRC-0033;SRC-0044", "independent_source_ids": "", "contradicting_source_ids": "SRC-0045", "locators": "SRC-0033: pp. 152–153; SRC-0044: Ep. 107.2, p. 292", "review_status": "reviewed", "verification_notes": "Checked against the Internet Archive texts on 2026-11-04. Cumont bases the list on Jerome, Ep. 107.2 (SRC-0044), whose 1912 CSEL edition also reads 'cryphius', and on inscriptions; the two are not independent. Contradicted only on the name of the second grade: the Felicissimus mosaic (SRC-0045, CLM-0043) assigns that place to the Nymphus (Bridegroom), the name used in modern scholarship. The other six names agree.", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0020", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0017", "name": "Seven-grade initiation system", "secrecy_type": "initiatory_rite", "restricted_to": "Initiates of each grade", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement", "stated_reason": "Not recorded: no Mithraic text explaining the cult survives", "current_status": "discontinued", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A sequence of grades through which initiates advanced, known mainly from inscriptions and images in Mithraic temples.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0017", "name": "Mithraic Mysteries", "tradition_type": "mystery_cult", "founded": "1st century CE", "region": "Roman Empire", "status": "extinct", "wikidata": "Q219903", "notes": "No internal text explaining the cult survives."}, "supporting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0033", "title": "The Mysteries of Mithra", "author": "Franz Cumont; Thomas J. McCormack, trans.", "original_year": "1903", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "book", "url": "https://archive.org/details/mysteriesmithra00mccogoog", "identifiers": "ia:mysteriesmithra00mccogoog", "provenance": "reconstruction", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "public_domain", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Many of Cumont's interpretations have since been disputed.", "artifacts": []}, {"id": "SRC-0044", "title": "Epistulae, Part II (Letters 71–120) (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 55)", "author": "Jerome; Isidor Hilberg (ed.)", "original_year": "c. 400", "edition_year": "1912", "source_type": "book", "url": "https://archive.org/details/corpusscriptorum0055unse", "identifiers": "ia:corpusscriptorum0055unse;ia:corpusscriptorum55stuoft", "provenance": "published_exposure", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "public_domain", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Letter 107, to Laeta, lists the seven Mithraic grades in passing. Hostile Christian source; the author's access to the rites is not established.", "artifacts": []}], "contradicting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0045", "title": "Regio V – Insula IX – Mitreo di Felicissimus (V,IX,1)", "author": "Ostia Antica website (ostia-antica.org)", "original_year": "", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "website", "url": "https://www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/9/9-1.htm", "identifiers": "", "provenance": "scholarship", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "copyrighted", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Description of the floor mosaic of the Felicissimus mithraeum, second half of the 3rd century CE; the plan is cited from Scavi di Ostia II. Read on 2026-11-04.", "artifacts": []}], "dataset": {"name": "open-arcana", "version": "0.3.0", "metadata_license": "CC0-1.0", "snapshot_sha256": "fd755a0cc0c78cf43dac965d39908085b13b246532d888525645150e391f8e45"}, "quality_issues": [{"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0033", "code": "source_authenticity_unassessed", "message": "Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0033", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0044", "code": "source_authenticity_unassessed", "message": "Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0044", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0045", "code": "source_authenticity_unassessed", "message": "Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0045", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}, {"table": "claims", "record_id": "CLM-0018", "code": "claim_contradicted", "message": "Claim support is contradicted; retain that qualification when quoting or training."}, {"table": "restricted_items", "record_id": "ITEM-0020", "code": "status_without_dated_evidence", "message": "The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked."}]}, {"id": "CLM-0043", "item_id": "ITEM-0020", "claim_type": "content", "suppression_method": "", "statement": "The floor of the Felicissimus mithraeum at Ostia shows seven panels, each pairing a planet with the emblems of a grade, in ascending order: Mercury with the raven of the Corax, Venus with the lamp of the Nymphus (Bridegroom), Mars with the lance and bag of the Miles, Jupiter with the shovel or ladle for carrying fire of the Leo, the Moon with the sickle-sword of the Perses, the Sun with the whip of the Heliodromus, and Saturn with the Phrygian cap, patera and rod of the Pater.", "period": "2nd half of the 3rd century CE (Ostia)", "claim_support": "single_source", "supporting_source_ids": "SRC-0045", "independent_source_ids": "", "contradicting_source_ids": "", "locators": "description of the seven panels", "review_status": "reviewed", "verification_notes": "Checked against the website on 2026-11-04. The emblems are interpreted, not labelled; the site calls the Leo emblem a spade or perhaps a ladle and the Perses weapon a hamatus or falcatus ensis.", "item": {"id": "ITEM-0020", "tradition_id": "TRAD-0017", "name": "Seven-grade initiation system", "secrecy_type": "initiatory_rite", "restricted_to": "Initiates of each grade", "restriction_mechanism": "grade_requirement", "stated_reason": "Not recorded: no Mithraic text explaining the cult survives", "current_status": "discontinued", "status_as_of": "", "status_claim_ids": "", "description": "A sequence of grades through which initiates advanced, known mainly from inscriptions and images in Mithraic temples.", "notes": ""}, "tradition": {"id": "TRAD-0017", "name": "Mithraic Mysteries", "tradition_type": "mystery_cult", "founded": "1st century CE", "region": "Roman Empire", "status": "extinct", "wikidata": "Q219903", "notes": "No internal text explaining the cult survives."}, "supporting_sources": [{"id": "SRC-0045", "title": "Regio V – Insula IX – Mitreo di Felicissimus (V,IX,1)", "author": "Ostia Antica website (ostia-antica.org)", "original_year": "", "edition_year": "", "source_type": "website", "url": "https://www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/9/9-1.htm", "identifiers": "", "provenance": "scholarship", "source_authenticity": "unassessed", "verification_notes": "", "rights": "copyrighted", "content_hash": "", "notes": "Description of the floor mosaic of the Felicissimus mithraeum, second half of the 3rd century CE; the plan is cited from Scavi di Ostia II. Read on 2026-11-04.", "artifacts": []}], "contradicting_sources": [], "dataset": {"name": "open-arcana", "version": "0.3.0", "metadata_license": "CC0-1.0", "snapshot_sha256": "fd755a0cc0c78cf43dac965d39908085b13b246532d888525645150e391f8e45"}, "quality_issues": [{"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0045", "code": "source_authenticity_unassessed", "message": "Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions."}, {"table": "sources", "record_id": "SRC-0045", "code": "source_without_content_hash", "message": "No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead."}, {"table": "restricted_items", "record_id": "ITEM-0020", "code": "status_without_dated_evidence", "message": "The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked."}]}]}