Salve Ennio,
The CIMRM is 1283. Unfortunately, I don’t know the inventory number wherever it is exposed. Please, let me know if you find out.
Vale,
TNM
My pleasure, Levin. I can’t offer much advice on moving unless you’re heading to Europe, but perhaps some of our American members can guide you. Glad you found us too. Vale.
Salve Levin. A great place to start is https://www.mithraeum.eu/book/the-roman-cult-of-mithras_1990 by Manfred Clauss. Also, if you can find it, https://www.mithraeum.eu/news/the-mystery-of-mithras-exploring-the-heart-of-a-roman-cult exhibition catalogue is excellent, very up to date and full of articles by top scholars. For symbolism and ritual, Attilio Mastrocinque has a couple of excellent books. And if you read French and are interested in ancient philosophy (as I can tell from your book selection pic), https://www.mithraeum.eu/book/mithras-platonicus_1975 by Robert Turcan is well worth it. Curious to see which one catches your attention!
Strange! I am not in Rome, but I would expect it to be open every day, even more in the summer! Anyhow, here are their opening hours: https://turismoroma.it/es/node/43919
Update! Found a new post-classical monument, this one from the French Renaissance: https://www.mithraeum.eu/monument/771.
And from now on, all post-classical monuments will be available here: https://www.mithraeum.eu/quaere.php?tag=postclassical
Beautiful and unexpected piece, Pattie. Thanks for sharing. Do you have any more information about it besides the brief description on the British Museum page? CIMRM maybe?
Dear Joachim: To my knowledge, perhaps not the dative lionis, but the word leo is often found in the Mithraic context, as you may know. If this is of interest to you, I think the best way to find it in this database is to look for people who have been identified as leo because of an inscription. Here is the link: https://www.mithraeum.eu/persons.php?gra=4. Hope it helps!
Indeed, Stephen. The catalogue is highly recommendable for all audiences, academic, professional and the simply curious. By the way, some of its articles can be found on this very site thanks to the generous support of the publisher, the Musée Royal Mariemont.
In The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity David Walsh explores how the cult of Mithras developed across the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. and why by the early 5th century the cult had completely disappeared.
What fascinates me is the bull's mouth next to the flame of Cautes. Many bulls with their heads raised are in front of Cautès, just with the flame in front of their mouth. It is the soul that comes out and goes up to heaven with Cautès.
The Mithraeum of Cabra is located in the Villa del Mitra, which owes its name to the discovery in 1951 of a Mithras tauroctonus in the remains of the Roman villa.
I live in Sarrebourg, where the famous mithraeum was found by the Germans in 1890. In the 3d century, the city was bigger than... today, with 5 massive towers .
New excavations in the Villa del Mitra (Nov 22-February 23) have provided a room with benches and cooked bones. No doubt it is the mithraem where the taurochtony was located. The sculpture was found 10m away from the spelaeum.
The relief of Mithras slaying the bull by Ottavio Zeno is lost, but two tablets of Cautes and Cautopates, which were part of the same ensemble, has been exposed at the Louvre.
Danuvius stele a C. Szabo mihi extraordinarius videtur. Accurate pictum videre vellem. Ubi est Sol, numquid puer ex ore tauri egreditur? Videmusne religionem inter Mithrae et Christianitatem? Multae post scriptum quaestiones : nomen meum est dominicus, princeps minimus, hoc est caput familiae.
Hello, I love this slab. Here, Cautes is carrying a torch with a figure on it, climbing towards the sky. This is extraordinary. The bas-relief found in the Basilica of Santo Rotondo on the Caelian Hill in Rome shows the Sun holding a small ball or round stone in his left hand which evokes a soul. This would be the image of the resurrection, the path of the soul that ascends to the Sun (Cautès). This image is found on the bas-relief of Tor Cervara in Rome, also kept in the Museum of the Baths of Diocletian. Here too, the Sun carries a round ball in his left hand. Here on your relief, it is a child. This resembles the iconography of the Middle Ages where the soul was represented as a child coming out of the mouth. In the background, the Berlin bull (Neues Museum in Berlin, 2nd century AD.) has its mouth open and is letting out a tongue which could be a soul, as mythology suggests (Gasquet, 1899). So, can we consider this child as the soul carried by Cautès, and coming out of the bull's mouth ? It shoud be revolutionnary !
