Tauroctony from Neuenheim

TNMM 205 ↔ CIMRM 1283

Relief in red sandstone (H. 2.26 Br. 2.40). Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum. I am deeply indebted to Dr. R. Schnellbach and Dr. Eva Zimmermann for sending me the photographs. The Museum was badly damaged during World-War II and therefore it was not possible for me to check all the monuments personally.

The monument has a base (H. 0.42) and consists of a main scene surrounded by other minor scenes on three sides, In the centre the usual representation of Mithras as a bullkiller, whose tail ends in seven corn-ears, The face of the god has a sorrowful expression and it looks towards the raven, which was sitting on the god's cloak but it is no longer visible, The dog and the scorpion in the usual place. The serpent coils over the ground towards a krater behind which a lion.

On either side of Mithras tauroktone and on a rocky base a torchbearer is visible in Oriental dress and cross-legged, Cautes (r) raises a burning torch with his r.h. Cautopates (l) holds a torch downwards, Both have a pedum in their l. hands. In the corners the busts of Sol (l) in radiate crown and of Luna (r) with crescent. Between them four cypresses (originally seven?) standing in a row against a rocky background.

In the upper corner between two blowing Wind-gods from l. to r.:

1) Mithras standing before a cypress and apparently breaking off branches.
2) Mithras as an Archer kneeling before a rock.
3) Sol in radiate crown standing in a quadriga and holding a whip in his upraised r.h. Mithras is ascending.
4) Naked Luna standing in a biga drawn by two oxen, The heads of the animals hidden behind the rocks. Luna has a whip in the r.h.
5) Mithras as an Archer kneeling before the rock.
6) Dressed bust of Mithras in Phrygian cap amidst the leaves of a cypress.

In the l. part from bottom to top:

7) Person in Oriental dress is kneeling and carries a large globe on his shoulders (Mithras-Atlas).
8) Reclining person on a rock the upper part of whose body is undressed, He is bearded and his head rests in his l. hand. In his r.h. he has an oblong object (Oceanus or Caelus).
9) Bearded person clad in a mantle and in a velum (Saturnus) has a harpè in his l.h. and over an altar hands the thunderbolt to Jupiter who in his upraised l.h. has a sceptre (Cf Eisler, Weltenmantel II, 440 and fig, 55). Jupiter is also bearded, he wears a long shoulder-cape and a diadem in his hair.
10) Naked youthful Mithras being born from the rock. His r.h. with dagger rests upon the rock; in his uplifted l.h. he holds a globe.

In the r. part from top to bottom:

11) Grazing bull.
12) Mithras carrying the bull on his shoulders; he holds it by the four legs, The god is looking backwards.
13) Running bull dragging Mithras along
14) Mithras carrying the bull to the r.

Comments

Ennio Sanzi

what’s the inventar number?

2

The New Mithraeum

Salve Ennio,

The CIMRM is 1283. Unfortunately, I don’t know the inventory number wherever it is exposed. Please, let me know if you find out.

Vale,
TNM

H. S.

The only one I could find in the digital catalog of the Badisches Landesmuseum (Digitaler Katalog – Badisches Landesmuseum can be found under the inventory number C118. However, it’s not the one you’re looking for.

A different website linked it to C16 (25499 Kultrelief eines Mithräums

Museum Heidelberg has a copy (HD_Neu 2020/2027 c)