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Monumentum

Torchbearer head from Heddernheim

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

Torchbearer head from Heddernheim.

 
The New Mithraeum
26 May 2026

TNMM 1438 ↔ CIMRM 1090

Fragment in sandstone (H. 0.17). Inv. No. 5481.

Damaged head probably of a torchbearer. The head is generally wrongly interpreted as that of a Mercury with a ribbon with two wings in his hair.

References

Habel, Mithrastempel, 180, 8 and Pl. VII, 2; MMM II 368m and fig. 255; Esp. Rec. Germ., 98 No. 144. See fig. 282.

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.

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.

 
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