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Monumentum

Red sandstone tauroctony from Heddernheim

Relief in red sandstone originally standing on a base in Mithraeum I at Heddernheim, ancient Nida, featuring the bull-slaying scene.
Red sandstone tauroctony from Heddernheim.

Red sandstone tauroctony from Heddernheim.

 
The New Mithraeum
26 May 2026

TNMM 1437 ↔ CIMRM 1085

Relief in red sandstone (H. 0.68 Br. 0.35 D. 0.08–0.10). Inv. No. 241 which originally must have stood on a base near K or L (See plan).

Cautopates in Oriental dress standing cross-legged on a base. With both hands he holds a torch downwards.

References

Habel, Mithrastempel, 180, 3 and Pl. III, 2; Hammer, Mithriaca, Pl. XIV, 6; Lajard, Rech., Pl. CIV, 5; MMM II 366f and fig. 249; Lehner, Führer Wiesb., 56 No. 241; Esp. Rec. Germ., 97f No. 142 and fig. See fig. 277.

Related monuments

Mithräum I von Heddernheim

First Mithraic sanctuary discovered at Heddernheim (ancient Nida) in 1826, with finds preserved in the Städtisches Museum at Wiesbaden.

Tauroctony from the Mithräum von Heddernheim

This relief is so well-known that it has been reproduced in nearly every handbook of archaeology and of history of religions.

Torchbearer head from Heddernheim

Sandstone fragment from Mithraeum I at Heddernheim, ancient Nida, probably the damaged head of a torchbearer, often misidentified as Mercury.

 
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