米罗:贵霜钱币所见的密特拉

Mirro: the Image of Mithra on the Kusana Coinage

密特拉神(Mithra)是古代雅利安(Indo-Aryan)宗教史上比较重要的神祇,其跨越不同时空,影响深远。该神名最早见于米旦尼(Mitanni)与赫梯(Hittie)国王Suppiluliunas所订立的盟约,该盟约提到了五位神,分别是密特拉(Mitra)、伐罗拿(Vanina)、因陀罗(Indra)与双子神(Nāsatyas)。米旦尼王国在今叙利亚北部,由胡里特人(Hunian)建立,他们原是印度一伊朗语民族(Indo-Iranian)中的一支,公元前两千年左右由中亚北部南下到达伊朗高原。

The Kushan Empire, located on a pivotal part of the Silk Road bestriding across Europe and Asia,controlled the economic and cultural exchange route between the west and the east, thus making various religions and civilizations converged on this territory. This picture is obviously reflected on the Kusana coinage in that there are Greek, Roman, Indian and Iranian cultural symbols, the image of Mithra is undoubtedly included. Considering temporal and spatial variation, Mithra was addressed as Mirro(written in Bactrian) and molded into solar divinity.In the Zoroastrian pantheon, although possessed of some certain features associated with the sun, Mithra was essentially not the solar deity in the Yast. The paper, based on the previous research results related, elaborates the image of Mirro appearing on the coins available to us. Meanwhile, it expounds the differences between Mirro and its Iranian counterpart as well as the reasons giving rise to them.