Mithras (name)

[3] The Greek form of the name appears in Xenophon's biography of Cyrus, the Cyropaedia,[4] a work written in the fourth century BC.

[5][6] Similar deity names in related Indo-European languages include Mitra, "मित्रः" found in Rig Vedic hymns.

[10] In the inscribed peace treaty of c. 1400 BC between Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van in Armenian Highlands, the form mi-it-ra- appears as the name of a god invoked together with four other divinities as witnesses and keepers of the pact.

Franz Cumont argued that it isn't;[16] Marvin Meyer thinks it is;[17] while Hans Dieter Betz sees it as a synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mithraic traditions.

A scenario discussed by Ulansey is that "the Roman cult of Mithras was actually a new religion" which "borrowed the name of an Iranian god in order to give itself an exotic oriental flavor".