After Action Report: MithraCon 2026 Day 2

Saturday, April 25th, 2026
Around 8 a.m. - around 10 p.m.
Participants: Marcus Quintius Clavus
Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia
Marcus Cassius Julianus
Titus Ovidius Nonus
Aulus Iulius Paterculus
David
Erica
   M. Quintius Clavus woke up well before most of the rest of us. A bit after Sibylla Ambrosia Fulvia had also awakened, Quintius dropped by to check on everyone else. Within a few minutes we had all showered and were ready to go to breakfast at Patricia's, the restaurant next to the hotel. It was bit less packed than usual, probably because we'd arrived early.
   Patricia herself remembered our group and was surprised it had been a year already. I asked whether Patricia's was older than MithraCon. Sibylla (who was the only one to have attended the conference since it first began) didn't know, as the earliest MithraCons had taken place in a different location. M. Cassius Julianus generously treated everyone to breakfast.
   Sibylla remained at the hotel room while the rest of us headed down to the Sterling Memorial Library. Once we arrived at the library, we headed off in different directions. Quintius had already renewed his library pass online and headed off to do research. Cassius went to the desk to renew his pass. T. Ovidius Nonus & I examined an exhibit of errata (https://events.yale.edu/event/beauties-of-my-style-errata-and-the-printed-mistake) (emendations appended to books to correct printers' errors). Nonus afterwards walked to the Yale Peabody Museum, while I went to the Bass Library downstairs.
   In the Bass Library, a display showed students who'd worked at the library were being honored by each receiving a nameplate in a book of choice. A Classics student had selected the Thebiad by Statius. I looked through a number of different collections while in the Bass Library: in the graphic novels section, I attempted to find the graphic novel adaption of 1177 B.C., which Quintius had recommended the preceding night, mentioning to us that he had gone to a talk at which he'd had his copy signed by the illustrator.
   At the Peabody, Nonus told some other visitors about Mithraism when they were discussing sun gods. He later took an Uber back to the hotel due to the rain. 
   After stopping at The Yale Bookstore, I returned to the room, only to find some new people had joined us and were engaged in conversation with Sibylla & Quintius. They introduced themselves as Erica & David. David had been informed of MithraCon through Reddit (where he'd also posted an etching he'd made of the tauroctony (https://www.reddit.com/r/Mithras/comments/1s2kd58/tauroctony_designed_and_etched_by_me/) and the two of them had decided to come up to check it out. It had required some detective work on their part, as the hotel staff didn't know about MithraCon when asked. They finally met Sibylla in the lobby wearing her MithraCon t-shirt. David told us that the person who'd told him about the conference had tried to attend as well, but had gotten discouraged at not being able to find us and left.
   Quintius told us that Cassius was still at the library because he'd found a book in Italian he was trying to scan into Word for ease of translation. We talked about various topics until Cassius and Nonus returned, and carried on when they came back. Erica & Sibylla both had experience in the medical field which gave them shared material for conversation. We talked about the Masons and about different Christian denominations. David shared a song (https://soundcloud.com/user-430526764/oh-mithras?si=79ffaab719cc4943adfdab8f9101f9bf&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) which a friend of his, a talented musician, had set to music at Dave's request. Cassius recommended Andrew Fear's book and highlighted the shortcomings of the book he'd brought with him.
   We decided it was time for dinner. Sibylla had brought chicken & Caesar salad, Quintius almonds & dried fruit, Cassius plenty of stuffed grape leaves. Nonus brought lupini beans which he'd been saving for this occasion. I brought fresh fruit: grapes, apples, & a pineapple*. Cassius sent a photo of the pineapple to Pattie.
   Nonus read us his carefully researched essay on the gladiatorial diet, which he'd finished and sent to be graded that very weekend. One key point he made was that gladiators were not vegetarians, as we know from direct literary evidence, but that it appeared that way because the vast quantities of beans in their diet reduced the amount of nitrogen in their remains.
   David had handmade phrygian caps which he gave us to wear for a group photo. We discussed the gladiatorial reenactors who'd once been in New England.
   After we'd cleared away the dishes and leftovers, some left the room while a Raven grade initiation took place. After that was complete, Nonus, Cassius, and I talked a bit longer about polytheistic religion before going to sleep.   

* This was a nod to Vermaseren's identification of a sculpted object included on a Mithraic statue as a pineapple, which we had seen and commented upon the previous.