Tauroctony from Syracuse
TNMM 263 ↔ CIMRM 163
The statue is very damaged. Mithras is missing his head, almost both full arms, right foot and cape. We can see the belly of the bull and part of his rear right leg.
Fragment of greyish marble relief (H. 0.57 Br. 0.55 D.0.18), found at Syracusae at the demolition of Spanish fortifications. Syracuse, Arch. Museum (Inv. No. 8478).
Mithras as a bullkiller. Of the god the trunk only has been preserved; of the bull the fore-part has got lost. On the belly of the animal the point of a snake’s tongue is visible.
Pace l.c. thinks to find further traces of the Mithras-cult at Syracuse in excavations, which Giovanni Pugliese should have examined near the Corso Umberto. Here a Mithras- sanctuary is said to have come to light.
References
MMM II 270 No. 121 and fig. 114; Libertini, Mus. Sic., 158 No. 8478; Pace, Sic. Ant., III, 675; fig. 45 through the intercession of the Museum.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
