Monumentum
Mithraic assemblage from Vitalj mountain
Altar and a relief of a figure tearing a lion to pieces, found along the Otočac–Gospić road near the mountains Veliki and Mali Vitalj, Dalmatia; the tauroctony interpretation of the lion-tearing relief was subsequently disputed.
The New Mithraeum
28 May 2026
TNMM 2380 ↔ CIMRM 1850
Along the way Otočac-Gospić there are the two mountains Veliki- and Mali Vitalj. Ljubic in Vjesnik IV, 1899, 19 mentions an altar from this region; Fras, Topogr. Mil.², 1850, 228f mentions "a Hercules who tears a lion to pieces", a relief which Ljubic called a statue of the Holy Virgin.
According to Patsch, Lika, 75 we have to do with two Mithraic reliefs which by now have got lost. He could not make a more profound study of these monuments, which at the time were used as practising targets. It seems that they do not deviate from the normal type.
References
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
