Felsgeburt des Mithras

This freestanding sculpture was found in 1894 inside Mithraeum IlI at Carnuntum, the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia Superior, on the right bank of the Danube. The sanctuary's movable objects appear to have been deliberately destroyed, at least in part.

Reconstituted from scattered fragments, this statue of calcareous sandstone, probably having been located to the left of an altar at the back of the sanctuary, ilustrates the petrogenesis, the episode of the birth of Mithras. Its conically formed base is composed of irregular rocks, from which the young god emerges nude, other

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