Caves, both pagan and Christian - The apparition of the archangel Michael in a cave used as a sanctuary to Mithra

The story of the first apparition of the archangel Michael as he takes poss ession of a cavern in Southern Italy (story preserved in the Acta Sanctorum ) shows that Christians not daring to enter the obscure cave (of which we n ow know that it sheltered a sanctuary dedicated to Mithra). There is a shar p contrast between this and the pagan stories where the heroes enter caves without fear. The same contrast is found in texts about purely literary cav erns. Plato's wise person can tame the cavern in which he or she is born an d manages to get free from it. Saint Augustine got lost in his inner spaces , which he compared to caverns. The article concludes with a contrast betwe en paganism , where all metamorphoses are possible, all passages accessible and all transitions manageable, and Christianity with it very sharp sense of breaks and discontinuities.