I have been reading a really interesting book, The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World by Payam Nabarz (Inner Traditions, 2005) and have been finding out all sorts of interesting things about Mithras, the Persian Sun God adopted by the Romans. An “ancient Indo-European god worshipped in polytheistic Persia” as early as 2000 BCE, He is “almost certainly” the Vedic Mitra venerated in India as the Lord of Light and the Protector of Truth; in Persian Farsi, “Mithra” means “love,” “sun,” and “friend,” detailing almost the whole of the “Mithraic mystery”- a Deity “friend,” who is the Light of the Sun and who is also the embodiment of Pure and Unconditional Love. Adopted by the Romans from approximately 100 BCE to 400 CE, Mithras’ worship as the “Invincible Sun God” spread throughout the Roman army, resulting in a “synergetic” religion that was perhaps the “most sophisticated in the Roman world,” the last Pagan state religion in Rome and the most “important competitor to early Christianity.” Mithraic temples have been found throughout the Empire, from Palestine through the North of Africa all the way to the British Isles (temple-remains are still seen in London); as was often the case with Pagan holy sites, Christian churches were sometimes built on top of Mithras’ temples. (Of all the Mithraic artifacts found, probably none compares to what was discovered at Sarrebourg, in Lorraine, France, when a shrine to Mithras was uncovered- with the skeleton of a man chained to the altar, and the door to the sacred room bricked up; Nabarz speculates [p. 52] that the man was a priest to Mithras who refused Christian conversion- and so was fastened to the altar of his Pagan God, walled up Edgar Allen Poe-like in the temple, and left to his Pagan fate.)

There are many connections between Mithras and Jesus, and Mithraism and Christianity: Persian Mithra and Roman Mithras were both said to be born on the Winter Solstice, to a virgin Mother Goddess (a bit of Persian mythology), in a cave or grotto, to which shepherds repaired with gifts for the Divine babe. Followers of Mithras worshipped in “cave temples” or “hidden caves,” which resemble early churches; one of the things that made Mithraism attractive to the Roman Legions was the absolute equality practiced among its members: whether slave, freedman, citizen, merchant, soldier, or emperor, all devotees of Mithras were held to be completely on a level with any other, an attitude expressed in Mithraic initiation (where a slave could initiate a ruler, or a legionary a senator). The hardcore democratic principles of Mithraism were reflected in the customs of the sacred meal that Mithras’ followers enjoyed together; in a society where gender and social differences were delineated by strict dining rules, the equality of community shared by Mithraics was extraordinary and noteworthy.

Most significant was the identification of a Mithraic High Priest as the “Pater” (Father) to a congregation of worshippers; in a case where a community of believers shared more than one priest, the “Highest” Priest became known as the “Pater Patrum”- the “Father of Fathers.” For all that Mithras was absorbed into the Western world, His Asiatic origins continued to be apparent, in His Persian trousers and Phrygian cap (a type of cap popular in ancient Phrygia, or modern-day Turkey, distinguished by the peak, which rests pointing forward over the forehead).

Also known as the “Liberty Cap” (associated with the Roman Goddess Libertas), the Phrygian Cap was worn by the French Revolutionaries as an emblem of “fraternity, equality, and liberty”; by 1792 it comprised part of the uniform of the Sans-culottes and after the fall of the Tuileries, Louis XVI was forced to wear one as a sign of his transition from Monarch to Citizen. An important distinction- unlike the Cap of Libertas (which is any color), the Liberty Cap was always red- red like the color of blood, the sun, and life, and red, like the Phrygian cap worn by a Mithraic Pater.

All of which becomes pertinent, in examining (wait for it) the Smurfs.  Sort of blue-skinned leprechauns, the Smurfs are notable for living in a pronounced communitarian and cooperative way (I remember jokes about the Smurfs being basically a Communist society, when the cartoon show started in the 1980s). Never mind that this “all for the basic good” lifestyle is exactly the type espoused by the Cult of Mithras: people have long sniggered over the question of, “How precisely do Smurfs reproduce- if there is only one female Smurf [Smurfette]?”

The answer is simple, if one is acquainted with the mythology of Mithras, and the Persian legend of an eternal Virgin Goddess who begats new generations without resort to male company- Smurfette produces young Smurfs as need be, and the creepier issues of Smurf-incest and group Smurf-sex never arise. And lastly, what to make of the fact that the signature headgear for the Smurfs is exactly the same peak-facing-forward Phrygian cap otherwise associated with the Ancient World cult of Mithras and the firebrands of the French Revolution- and that the only Smurf to wear a red cap (red being the color of a Mithraic Pater or ‘Father” to the Mithraic community) is the paternalistic “Papa Smurf”? Perhaps rather than as kitschy redo of 1980s pop-culture- the Smurfs Movie might instead be read as the frolicsome hi-jinks of a prototypical band of Mithras-Worshippers.