Fresco scene from Mitreo of Santa Maria Capua Vetere

TNMM 234 ↔ CIMRM 188

Before the standing mystagogus, dressed in white tunica with red stripes, the myste kneels down with folded hands. Here he is blindfolded as well, with a white bandage. Behind him a priest approaches dressed in a red mantle and Phrygian cap; he seems to hold a sword or staff in his hands.

[This second panel] (W. 0.92 m.) shows once again the blindfolded and naked alumnus with his magister behind him. The mystes is kneeling on his right knee; his hands are tied behind his back. Pseudo-Augustine tells that the cords used for this were made of chicken gut. The mystagogus seems to be the same as in the previous panel since he is clad in a short white tunic and a shoulder cape bordered with red. His head is now better visible. He seems to have a ring beard and moustache; he gazes sternly at the neophyte before him; he wears no cap. He carries no attribute in his left hand and with the outstretched right hand he touches the back of the other’s head. Before the kneeling mystes, whose initiation as now begun is a figure ’in full stride’. He is clad in a red tunic, a billowing red cape and red helmet, the crest of which is also red. He too has a ring beard and moustache. His right hand is not visible it is possible that it is concealed by his cape, but in his outstretched left hand he holds a flaming torch near the head of the mystes. This person who’s is subjecting the mystes to a fire test, is certainly a miles who in the Sª Prisca Mithraeum is placed under the protection of Mars and whose attribute at Ostia is a helmet.

—M. J. Vermaseren (1971) Mithriaca I. The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere