Tauroctony vase from Lezoux

TNMM 2134 ↔ CIMRM 908C1

Vase (form Dragendorff-Déchelette 72) found in 1957 at Lezoux (section H, No. 397–398) only one half of which is preserved. Lezoux, Arch. Museum.

A. Morlet in Les Nouvelles Littéraires 26–IX–1957, 7 and fig.; Comité de Lezoux, Vase à relief d'applique représentant Mithra in Ogam IX, 1957, 147ff and Pls XIII–XIX. See fig. 257 kindly offered by Dr. A. Morlet.

Mithras as a bullkiller in a rectangle, bordered by twigs and pearls in barbotine. Underneath the bull are the serpent and the scorpion. The god's flying cloak is decorated with a large rosette. Behind this scene are the dog and two cross-legged torchbearers with upraised torches. Between them in a metope is a sitting half-naked goddess with a cornucopia in her r.h. and probably holding a patera in her l.h. Before the bull a third torchbearer in the same attitude as his companions and another Abundantia. Middle of the third century A.D.