Fitz Jenő (szerk.): Religions and Cults in Pannonia. Exhibiton an Székesfehérvár, Csók István Gallery 15 May - 30 September 1996 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: A. sorozat 33. (1998)

Lararium In the domestic sanctuaries the statuettes of the tutelar deities of the family were kept; on certain days sacrifices - cakes, honey, wine - were offered to them, their statuettes were surrounded with wraiths. The place of the larariums was on the interior arcades of the house, in the dining-room or in the small niche on the kitchen wall. The richest lararium of Pannónia was found at Nagydém - presumably on the territory of a villa, with bronze statuettes of the 1st century, coming from Italy. Liber-Libera Liber pater is one of the most ancient Italian deity, the patron of Nature and fertility, represented with grapes. The deity was identified from the 1 st century A.D. on with the Greek Dionysos. The companion of Liber is Libera, holding a fruit basket. The Liberalia were held in every spring on March 17. In Illyricum Liber pater was brought in connection with the local, indigenous deities. Their cult became popular in Pannónia in the early 3rd century. Popular religion, magic beliefs The ancient magic beliefs and ceremonies belonged even as late as in the imperial period to the everyday religion. The jewellery worn around the neck, the bullas, amulets, further rings and lead-framed mirrors had apotropaeic character. Magna Mater (Kybele) A fertility and mother goddess of Asia Minor, Phrygia. Her cult appeared in the province soon, together with her young divine paredros and lover, Attis, the dying and resurrecting god, symbol of the rebirth of vegetation. On their feast between April 4 and 10 their myth was revived, on whose course the priests castrated themselves, the iniciated devotees washed themselves in the blood of the sacrified bull, gaining thus the possibility of purification and rebirth. Attis, as the symbol of rebirth, is a frequent figure of the Pannonian funeral sculpture. The malediction tablet Malediction and magic tablets were placed in sanctuaries or on graves. The persons who ordered the inscriptions engraved or incised in lead tablets called down curses on their enemies, antagonists, business rivals in the form of petitions directed to the neither world deities. The text of a Greek inscription found in the Eastern Cemetery of Savaria is: Abrasarx, I hand over to you Adiectos, son ofKupeita, that as long as the (tablet) lays here, he should not do anything, but as you are dead, he should live with you the whole time. (Translated by Dóra Gáspár). Mercurius We met his relics in all civil settlements of the province. He was the protector of itinerants both in their life and after their death, as psychopompos. He was represented with a winged cap on his head and the caduceus, staff of heralds, entwined with snakes and foliage. We often find a money-bag in his hand: he helped the security, welfare of the Roman citizen. Minerva One of the three Capitoline deities defending Rome and the Roman Empire, she represented among the gods the arts, sciences and crafts. She was traditionally represented in helmet, breast-plate and shield, bearing a lance. She was the goddess of ingeniously fought war as well. Mithras Mithras, a god of Persian (Iranian) origin, was, from the 2nd century on, among all Oriental deities the most popular in Pannónia. Mithras is the god of Light, a benevolent and omnivident deity who overcomes darkness and malignity. On the cult representations of his sanctuaries we see Mithras kneeling on the back of the bull representing darkness and the evil principle stabbing it to death. This religion with a world concept of its own becomes in the course of the 3rd century more and more popular turning into the most vigorous rival of Christianity. The traces of his cult are demonstrable in the province as late as the 4th century. The cult of Mithras was flourishing both in military and civil circles, especially in three centres of the province (Poetovio, Carnuntum, Aquincum) and in their environment. 124