Monumentum
Roman Marble Relief Panel with Birth of Mithras
Mithras emerging from the rock with torch and dagger beside a reclining Oceanus or Saturn.
Relief showing the birth of Mithras beside a reclining Oceanus or Saturn.
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The New Mithraeum
12 May 2021
Updated on 12 May 2023
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Rome, Imperial, ca. 1st to 4th century. A marble relief panel depicting the birth of the Roman god Mithras. Shown from the torso up and wearing a Phrygian cap, the cult deity emerges from the 'generative rock' from which he was born as a fully formed young man. His extended right arm holds up a torch, symbolic of the fire or light hidden deep in the rock that birthed him, and a knife in his left, an allusion to his future slaying of a sacred bull.