Tauroctony from the Mitreo delle terme di Mitra

TNMM 108 ↔ CIMRM 230 & 231

Large marble statue placed on a base underneath one of the funnels.

A very exceptional representation of Mithras as a bullkiller. The young god, only clad in a short tunica, which covers half of his chest, grasps the bull with his l.h. underneath his mouth and triumphantly raises the r.h. with the dagger. He forces the animal down with his knees. The sheath of the dagger is fixed on his belt. The god raises his curly head with pathetic expression towards the sky. On the base crals the snake. No scorpion. On the bull’s chest an inscription No. 231.

Lost: part of the dagger; parts of the bull’s forelegs and tail. Mithras’ head and arms, the bull’s head and parts of its knees and tail already in antiquity had been repaired in a grayish marble. Thus the Mithraists repaired and used an older statue, the date of which is the second century A.D.

CIMRM II 230

The statue of Kritoon was placed on a base in three quarter view and under one of the funnels for the light to fall on the head of Mithras. Margarete Bieber in AJA 60, 1956, 311f is inclined to believe that the statue was originally not meant for Mithras at all, but that the group represents a taurobolium in honour of the Magna Mater. When it was used again, parts of the bull had to be repaired. ’I believe that at that time the upper part of the head of the youth had to be cut off in order to fit it with a Phrygian cap, for which a dowel hole was bored (Becatti, Pl. XXX).’ J. Le Gall in RA (S. 6) XLIX, 1957, 75 fig. 2 adds that the god certainly wore rays in gilt metal. This is possible (cf. No. 280–281) but not certain.

A copy of the very interesting group of Kritoon, existing in the Coll. Giustiniani and now in the Villa di Bassano in Sutri, is published by G. Becatti in BollArte 1957, 1ff. The group has been falsely restored as a gladiator killing a lion. Only Mithras’ body except his head, his l.h. and part of his r. thigh are original. The measurements of this copy correspond exactly with those of the original at Ostia. See fig. 248 = Becatti, fig. 4.

CIMRM 231

L.H. 0.01-0.015.

Κρίτων / ἈΘηναῖος / ἐποίει.

Behind the podia a statue of Mithras about to kill the bull was found in situ, resting on a masonry base placed diagonally (h. 0.30). The head of the god was illuminated in a dramatic way through a skylight. The height of the statue is 1.70. It is made of Greek marble. The blade of the knife is missing. It was probably made of metal. The Phrygian cap was made separately and is also missing, as are the metal rays that were fastened in holes. The head of the bull and the head and an arm of Mithras were found in a channel in the mithraeum, together with small fragments of the statue, that are ancient restorations. The statue stands upon a base of grey marble (resting on the masonry base), the same kind of marble used for the restorations. Obviously a damaged statue had been acquired. The fragments must have been thrown in the channel by Christians, who erected a small edifice above the mithraeum.

On the chest of the bull is the inscription that mentions the name of the person who commanded the sculpture. It may have been M. Umbilius Criton, who is documented in the Mitreo della Planta Pedis. The statue seems to belong to the second century AD. The mithraeum may have been installed in the first half of the third century.

La trouvaille la plus sensationnelle a été celle d’un groupe de ronde bosse de grande dimension que nous reproduisons d’après une photographie que M. Becatti a bien voulu mettre à notre disposition. Signé par un artiste athénien, Kriton, qui parait avoir vécu dans la première moitié du IIe siècle, cette œuvre est contemporaine du plus ancien monument mithriaque que nous connaissions jusqu’ici, un groupe provenant de Rome, aujourd’hui au British Museum, consacré par un esclave de T. Claudius Livianus, qui fut préfet du prétoire sous Trajan en 101.

Le marbre de Kriton s’écarte de toutes les représentations de Mithra connues jusqu’ici. Le dieu y prend l’aspect d’un héros grec; il ne porte pas le costume oriental, ni le bonnet phrygien, mais une courte tunique, qui laisse la moitié du torse à découvert ; il n’enfonce pas son coutelas dans la gorge de sa victime mais, le bras levé, s’apprête à la frapper; il n’est accompagné ni des deux dadophores, ni d’aucun des animaux qui participent d’ordinaire au drame sacré de l’immolation du taureau. L’expression extatique de son visage tourné vers le ciel, n’est point celle de la douleur que veulent rendre la plupart des images du dieu tauroctone jusqu’ici connues et en particulier une tête trouvée à Ostie mème par Visconti et que l’on peut voir au Latran. Ce groupe est l’œuvre d’un artiste qui interprète à sa guise la légende sacrée.