Tauroctony relief from Janjevo

TNMM 2456 ↔ CIMRM 2214

Marble relief (H. 0.345 Br. 0.28 D. 0.025) of which the r. corners are broken off. Found at Janjevo near Kosovo in southern Serbia. Before World-War II in Beograd, Narodni Muzeum (Belgrad, National Museum); the Director G. Mano-Zissi told me that he is uninformed as to its present location.

Grbić in RA (S. 6) X, 1937, 178f and fig. 3; Bulic in Spomenik XCVIII, 77, 1941–1948, No. 106 and fig.; LeRoy Campbell in Berytus XI, 1954, 51 No. 430. See fig. 610.

The relief is divided into three parts by horizontal rims and the upper part is arched. In the centre the usual representation of Mithras as a bullkiller with serpent, dog, scorpion and raven. Cautes (r) and Cautopates (l) are cross-legged. Between Cautes and the bull's head a representation of Mithras' rockbirth; before Cautopates a lion's head is visible.

In the upper part of the relief from l. to r.:

1) Bust of Sol.

2) The bull in a small boat.

3) Mithras sitting on a rocky stone shoots towards a rock before which a person is kneeling. Behind the god another person who touches him with his r.h.

4) Small house with the bull(?).

5) Probably the bust of Luna; lost.

In the lower part of the relief from l. to r.:

6) Mithras taurophorus.

7) Standing Mithras puts his hands on Sol's head.

8) Two heads (sacred repast) side by side.

9) Two heads (Mithras ascends Sol's chariot).