620 the second time, until you
have gone through the | seven
immortal gods of the universe. When you have said these things
you will hear thundering and shaking in the surrounding realm;
and in the same way you will experience yourself being shaken.
But you say again: “Silence!” (the prayer).
625 Then open your eyes, and you will see the doors opened | and
the world of the gods, which is within the doors, so that
from the pleasure and joy of the sight your spirit runs ahead
and ascends. (Hans Dieter Betz,, The “Mithras Liturgy” [Studien und
Texte zu Antike und Christentum 18; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003], 54)
Then the practitioner is told to
open his eyes and experience the vision (II. 624-28): ειτα ανοιζον τους αφθαλμους και οψη. (“Then open your eyes, and you will see.”) The opening of the
eyes ends the closing which had been ordered at II. 586-87. As usual, the
vision is announced by οψη.
Its object is presented as a description of an image: ανεωγυιας τας θυρας και τον κοσμου των θεων, ος εστιν εντος
των θυρων ωστς απο της του θεαματος ηδονης και της χαρας το πνευμα σου συντρεχειν
και αναβαινειν. (“You will see the doors opened and the world of the gods, which is
within the doors, so that from the pleasure and joy of the sight your spirit
runs ahead and ascends”). The doors in the sun reported as closed in II. 584-85,
are now opened, so that the initiate can take a look inside of heaven, the
world of the gods. The opening of the doors of heaven is a topos of vision
accounts of all kinds, especially in apocalyptic literature (cf. also Homer, Od.
24.12ff). Viewing this image turns the previous fear into pleasure and joy, so
that his spirit that he had inhaled before (see II. 537, 628) runs with him and
carries him along on his ascent. (Ibid., 165-66)
