Two marble heads from Ostia, including a youthful figure wearing a Phrygian cap and another identified as Mithras-Helios.
The New Mithraeum
27 May 2026
Head of Greek marble (H. 0.46). Lateran Museum (Sala XVI, 950). Becatti, Mitrei Ostia, 56 and PI. XXXII, 3. Youthful head in Phrygian cap. End of second cent. A.D. Possibly belonging to this Mithraeum. Head of Italian marble (H. 0.36). Benndorf-Schone, l.c.; Becatti, o.c., 56 and PI. XXXII, 1-2. Youthful head of Mithras-Helios with pathetic expression. Half open mouth; the backside of the head is so elaborated, that a separate Phrygian cap could be attached to it.
Two marble fragments of a statue of Mithras as bull-killer, preserving the head in Phrygian cap and right hand with dagger, with traces of red paint, from the Mitreo del Palazzo Imperiale at Ostia.
A few pieces of tuff worked as rocks, forming a cone representing the remnants of the rock-birth of Mithras, found around the altar in the Mitreo del Palazzo Imperiale at Ostia.