Roger Beck is Professor Emeritus, at the University of Toronto.

Given Beck's credentials and his reputation as an erudite scholar of the enigmatic mysteries of Mithras, one might rightly expect that this book would break new ground. Beck does not disappoint. The book is engagingly written and is an exemplar of how scholarship can be pursued in a fair, engaging manner.

• 1. Introduction to interpreting the mysteries: old ways, new ways ; 2. Old ways: the reconstruction of Mithraic doctrine from iconography ; 3. The problem of referents: interpretation with reference to what? ; 4. Doctrine redefined ; TRANSITION: FROM OLD WAYS TO NEW WAYS ; 5. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 1. Introduction and comparisons ; 6. Cognition and representation ; 7. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 2. The mithraeum ; 8. Star-talk: the symbols of the Mithraic mysteries as language signs ; 9. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 3. The tauroctony ; 10. Excursus

Roger Beck is Professor Emeritus, at the University of Toronto.

Given Beck's credentials and his reputation as an erudite scholar of the enigmatic mysteries of Mithras, one might rightly expect that this book would break new ground. Beck does not disappoint. The book is engagingly written and is an exemplar of how scholarship can be pursued in a fair, engaging manner.

• 1. Introduction to interpreting the mysteries: old ways, new ways ; 2. Old ways: the reconstruction of Mithraic doctrine from iconography ; 3. The problem of referents: interpretation with reference to what? ; 4. Doctrine redefined ; TRANSITION: FROM OLD WAYS TO NEW WAYS ; 5. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 1. Introduction and comparisons ; 6. Cognition and representation ; 7. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 2. The mithraeum ; 8. Star-talk: the symbols of the Mithraic mysteries as language signs ; 9. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 3. The tauroctony ; 10. Excursus

Roger Beck is Professor Emeritus, at the University of Toronto.

Given Beck's credentials and his reputation as an erudite scholar of the enigmatic mysteries of Mithras, one might rightly expect that this book would break new ground. Beck does not disappoint. The book is engagingly written and is an exemplar of how scholarship can be pursued in a fair, engaging manner.

• 1. Introduction to interpreting the mysteries: old ways, new ways ; 2. Old ways: the reconstruction of Mithraic doctrine from iconography ; 3. The problem of referents: interpretation with reference to what? ; 4. Doctrine redefined ; TRANSITION: FROM OLD WAYS TO NEW WAYS ; 5. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 1. Introduction and comparisons ; 6. Cognition and representation ; 7. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 2. The mithraeum ; 8. Star-talk: the symbols of the Mithraic mysteries as language signs ; 9. The Mithraic mysteries as symbol system. 3. The tauroctony ; 10. Excursus