Marble tauroctony from Apulum

TNMM 1860 ↔ CIMRM 1974

White marble relief found at Apulum. Formerly at Cluj (= Kolozsvár = Klausenburg) afterwards transported to Budapest, where it was in a private collection.

Cumont in AErt 1893, 290; MMM II 312f No. 194 and fig. 170. Cf. Mon. 2000.

Mithras as a bullkiller in a grotto. The dog with collar and the scorpion; the serpent is not represented. On either side are the torchbearers in Oriental dress, but without Phrygian cap; they are not cross-legged and they wear boots. They hold their torches upwards (Cautes, l.) or downwards (Cautopates, r.) with their r. hands. Against their l. shoulders they have a stick at the end of which probably a Phrygian cap. Above Mithras' flying cloak there is a krater on the border of which a raven is perched. In the upper corners are the dressed busts of Sol (l) and of Luna (r). Beside Mithras' head nine altars in a row: four on the l. and five on the r. side. In the arched grotto's border from l. to r.:

1) Mithras carrying the bull.

2) The bull in a small boat.

3) Mithras sitting on a rocky stone is shooting.

4) The bull in a small house.

5) Belongs to scene 3. Kneeling person who holds his hands before his face.

6) Sitting person who leans on a stick.

7) Walking person with a stick over his shoulder.

8) Mithras' rockbirth. He holds a torch and a knife in his upraised hands.

In the bottom border from l. to r.:

9) Standing Mithras with hands outstretched above the head of Sol who is kneeling down before him. Sol is dressed only in a shoulder cape.

10) Mithras and Sol at the sacred repast. Mithras holds a rhyton in his upraised r.h.

11) Sol in a biga helps Mithras to ascend.

12) Naked god in a person in long hair and beard above a rocky stone. With his upraised hands he holds a velum which is divided into sections by rays (Saturnus).