Eros and Psyche
TNMM 174 ↔ CIMRM 186
White marble relief (H. 0.32 Br. 0.39) in a recess in the Southern wall above the water-basin of the podium.
The nude winged child Amor seizes the arm of the bigger Psyche, also winged, to lead her away in the light of his torch. The girl lifts a part of her diaphanous dress. The whole is set in a red frame.
White marble relief inserted above a water basin in the podium’s Mithraeum. The relief which was carefully framed with a red border, represents a nude winged child Eros with a flaming torch in his outstretched left hand. With his right hand he takes Psyche under one arm to lead her away. She is wearing a long diaphanous dress the hem of which she is holding in her right hand. She has on her shoulders delicate wings like those of a butterfly.
It is remarkable that a marble group of Eros and Phyche has been found in the Iseum at Savaria also. This means that in the Mithraic and Isaic mysteries, as in Christian art, the two children have a symbolic meaning: the soul is illuminated and guided by Eros on its journey to the hereafter. This is the reason that both often occur on funeral monuments.
References
Reitzenstein in ARW 1930 42ff and fig. 15; Minto 367 and fig. 9. See fig. 56.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
