50 Compare the linen-clad retinue of Helios. Also the bull-headed gods wear white περιζώματα (aprons).
51 The title of Mithra in Vendidad XIX, 28; cit. by Cumont: "Textes et Monuments," p. 37.
52 The development of the sun symbol in Faust does not go as far as an anthropomorphic vision. It stops in the suicide scene at the chariot of Helios ("A fiery chariot borne on buoyant pinions sweeps near me now"). The fiery chariot comes to receive the dying or departing hero, as in the ascension of Elijah or of Mithra. (Similarly Francis of Assisi.) In his flight Faust passes over the sea, just as does Mithra. The ancient Christian pictorial representations of the ascension of Elijah are partly founded upon the corresponding Mithraic representations. The horses of the sun—chariot rushing upwards to Heaven leave the solid earth behind, and pursue their course over a water god, Oceanus, lying at their feet. (Cumont: "Textes et Monuments." Bruxelles 1899, I, p. 178.)
53 Compare my article, "Psych. und Path. sog. occ. Phän."
54 Quoted from Pitra: "Analecta sacra," cit. by Cumont: "Textes et Monuments," p. 355.
55 Cited from Usener: "Weihnachtsfest," p. 5.
56 The passage from Malachi is found in chap. iv, 2: "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings" (feathers). This figure of speech recalls the Egyptian sun symbol.
57 Cumont: "Textes et Monuments," t. I, p. 355. περὶ ἀστρονόμων.
58 The pictures in the Catacombs contain much symbolism of the sun. The Swastika cross, for example—a well-known image of the sun, wheel of the sun, or sun's feet—is found upon the garment of Fossor Diogenes in the cemetery of Peter and Marcellinus. The symbols of the rising sun, the bull and the ram, are found in the Orpheus fresco of the cemetery of the holy Domitilla. Similarly the ram and the peacock (which, like the phœnix, is the symbol of the sun) is found upon an epitaph of the Callistus Catacomb.
59 Compare the countless examples in Görres: "Die christliche Mystik."
60 Compare Leblant: "Sarcophages de la Gaule," 1880. In the "Homilies" of Clement of Rome ("Hom.," II, 23, cit. by Cumont) it is said: Τῷ κυρίῳ γεγονάσιν δώδεκα ἀπόστολοι τῶν τοῦ ἡλίου δώδεκα μηνῶν φέροντες τὸν ἀριθμόν (The twelve apostles of the Lord, having the number of the twelve months of the sun). As is apparent, this idea is concerned with the course of the sun through the Zodiac. Without wishing to enter upon an interpretation of the Zodiac, I mention that, according to the ancient view (probably Chaldean), the course of the sun was represented by a snake which carried the signs of the Zodiac on its back (similarly to the Leontocephalic God of the Mithra mysteries). This view is proven by a passage from a Vatican Codex edited by Cumont in another connection (190, saec. XIII, p. 229, p. 85): "τότε ὁ πάνσοφος δημιουργὸς ἄκρῳ νεύματι ἐκίνησε τὸν μέγαν δράκοντα σὺν τῷ κεκοσμημένῳ στεφάνῳ, λέγω δὴ τὰ ἰβ’ ζῴδια, βαστάζοντα ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου αὐτοῦ" (The all—wise maker of the world set in motion the great dragon with the adorned crown, with a command