Mémoire sur un bas-relief mithriaque, qui a été découvert à Vienne (Isère)
This memoir by Félix Lajard examines a Mithraic bas-relief discovered in 1830 during earthworks in the city of Vienne (Isère). Two fragments of a broken Roman relief were unearthed on private property near previously identified ancient structures. An initial report attributed the monument to the cult of Janus, but Lajard argues that this identification is incorrect and that the relief belongs instead to the Roman cult of Mithras, despite presenting features not previously attested on Mithraic reliefs.
To clarify the matter, Lajard travelled to Vienne to inspect both the fragments and their archaeological context. Together with local scholars, he observed that nearby remains correspond to a small underground vaulted structure, likely a mithraeum. The relief appears to have been forcibly removed and deliberately broken, probably during the late antique destruction of pagan sanctuaries. From the surviving fragments, Lajard reconstructs the original dimensions of the monument and notes that it was carved in a non-local limestone, suggesting importation from southern regions of Gaul.
The preserved imagery includes a lion-headed, winged figure entwined by a serpent, holding keys, flanked by altars and subsidiary figures. Lajard situates this iconography within the broader corpus of Roman representations of lion-headed deities associated with Mithraism, comparing the Vienne relief with earlier finds known from Rome and elsewhere. He emphasizes the uniqueness of the composition, particularly the association of the lion-headed figure with paired subsidiary groups, and treats the monument as significant evidence for the diversity of Mithraic imagery in the Roman world.
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