Support The New MithraeumThe New Mithraeum is an independent, non-profit project dedicated to Mithraic studies, ancient religions and classical culture.Developed and maintained independently since 2007, the site exists without advertising, paywalls or institutional funding. If you have found value in its articles, interviews, photographs or database, please consider supporting the project with a contribution.Every contribution helps keep The New Mithraeum open, free and alive.Thank you.
In this relief of Mithras as bull slayer, recorded in 1562 in the collection of A. Magarozzi, Cautes and Cautopates have been replaced by trees still bearing the torches.
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 !
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.
