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Monumentum

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.
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The New Mithraeum
7 May 2010
Updated on May 2026
Relief in sandstone (H. 1.80 Br. 1.76 D. 0.22). Inv. No. 239.
The relief is sculpted on two sides and it is revolving because it has a pivot at the top and a socket at the bottom.AThe front has the usual scene of Mithras as the bullkiller in a grotto. The bull’s tail ends in three corn-ears. The raven sits on the god’s flying cloak; the dog with a collar leaps up against the bull and the scorpion grasps its genitals. Underneath the bull is an amphora or krater with two handles with a serpent coiling against it. To its right is a lion with menacing head. Cautes (r) with uplifted torch and…

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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.

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.

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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