Cult Images and Mithraic Reliefs in Roman Dacia

The use of images in religious rituals might be considered an essential practice, integrating them into the spiritual life of the antiquity. The festivals, in which images were periodically dressed, paraded, washed and worshiped, stand as a proof of the religious dimension of these artifacts. The question that arises is what kind of images might be considered cultic representations and could there be certain features likely to identify these cultic media? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the means of representation and the significance of the cults attested on the territory of the province of Dacia, focusing on the relief representations of the Mithraic religion. The generally accepted thought is that a cult object is symbolized only by statues, while relief representations fall into the votive category. It is believed that only statues occupied a central place in the temple, receiving donations and other kinds of manifestations in order to demonstrate the divinity's veneration by the worshiper. This hypothesis is based on the ancient Greeks' belief that the divinity had the same nature as the humans, and thus anthropomorphism was the Greek solution for the representation of the deity. Nevertheless, there are several cults which have the relief as a main form of representation, central among them being the Mithraic cult, and thus the question that arises, and which we try to answer, is whether a representation is a cult image or not.