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Monumentum

Feast from Mérida

This scene of a feast from Mérida shows three persons at a table with other people standing beside them, one holding a bull’s head on a plate.
  • Mithraic feast from Mérida

    Mithraic feast from Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA)

  • Mithraic feast from Mérida

    Mithraic feast from Mérida
    CIMRM

  • CIMRM 782

    CIMRM 782
    Vermaseren's Corpus

 
The New Mithraeum
2 Jun 2021
Updated on Jan 2025

TNMM 300 ↔ CIMRM 782

Marble relief (H. 0.36 Br. 0.70). Mus. Merida, Inv. No. 127.

Three persons, reclining at table, on which a plate with food (bread and meat ?). On either side a person is standing, dressed in a long cloak. A third person approaches from the left, also in a long cloak, carrying a plate in both hands, on which a bull’s head. Behind him a representation of Mithras’ rock-birth. The god holds his arms spread out. The heads of all figures are damaged.

References

Gomez Moreno, Materiales, PI. XXXIV, fig. 40; Paris in RA XXIV, 1914, 10 No. 10 and fig. 8; Melida, Cat. Badajoz, No. 1096; Pidal, Hist. Esp., II, 442 and fig. 252. See fig. 214.

Comments

This is not a mithraic feast. It is part of a christian sarcophagus, on the left is a representation of Noah. See: https://humanidadesdigitales.uc3m.es/s/mitra/item/10487
Thank you, Jaime, for your clarification of this monument, previously identified as Mithraic. I will refer our readers to your comprehensive article and discussion.
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Related monuments

Cerro de San Albín

Although the site at Cerro de San Albín is not a Mithraeum, archaeologists have found several monuments related to the cult of Mithras.

Aion of Mérida

The Aion-Chronos of Mérida was found near the bullring of the current city, once capital of the Roman province Hispania Ulterior.

Lion-headed figure of Mérida

The lion-headed figure, Aion, from Mérida, wears oriental knickers fastened at the waist by a cinch strap.

Cautopates from Casa del Mitreo of Mérida

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Naked figure from Mérida

This sculpture may be a naked dadophorus, probably Cautopates.

Altar of Merida consecrated by Marcus Valerius Secundus

This altar is dedicated to the birth of Mithras by a frumentarius of the Legio VII Geminae.

Mercury of Mérida

The statue of Mercury in Merida bears a dedication from the Roman Pater of a community in the city in 155.

Cautes from Mérida

This nude male figure, found at Cerro de San Albín, Mérida, has been identified as Cautes.

 

Venus pudica of Mérida

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Isis de Mérida

The Isis of Merida is covered by a long dress that reaches down to her feet.

Aesculapius of Merida

This standing sculptural figure from Mérida appears to carry the serpent staff, characteristic of the medicine god Aesculapius.

Altar by Caius Aemilius Superaius of Merida

Small white marble altar made in honour of Mithras found at San Albín, Mérida.

 

Altar of Gaius Iulius from Mérida

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Oceaunus of Mérida

The sculpture of Oceanus in Merida bears an inscription by the Pater Patrorum Gaius Accius Hedychrus.

Venus of Mérida small sculpture

The lack of attributes and its decontextualisation prevent us from attributing a specific Mithraic attribution to this small Venus pudica from Mérida.

Serapis head from Mérida

This head of Serapis from Cerro de San Albín may be unrelated to Mithras worship.

 

Altar of Mérida from Quintio

This altar, which has now disappeared, was dedicated by the slave Quintio for the health of a certain Coutius Lupus.

Tauroctony from the Gran Mitreo de Mérida

These fragments of a monumental tauroctony found in the Cerro de San Albín must have decorated the Gran Mitreo de Mérida, which has not yet been found.

 
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