Tauroctony in the British Museum
,_found_in_Rome,_2nd_century_AD,_British_Museum_(15545876047).jpg "Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0")
TNMM 328 ↔ CIMRM 592
White marble statue (H. 1.27 BL 1.50). From Rome transported to London by Charles Standish in 1815; from 1826 in the British Museum, Inv. No. 1720. Probably second century.
Mithras, slaying the bull. The dog and the serpent lick the blood from the wound; the scorpion at the testicles.
Restored: Mithras’ head, l. arm, r. arm (foremost part) and greater part of the dagger, part of the attire; the bull’s muzzle, ears and horns; the hind-quarter of the dog except the legs.
Smith observes that the statue corresponds accurately to a sketch by van Heemskerck, if one thinks away the restorations. But the band on the bull contradicts this opinion, because this band does not occur on the statue itself.
References
Ellis, Townley Gall., I, 282; Clarac, Mus. Sculpt., IV, 25 and Pl. 559; MMM II 227 No. 64 and fig. 60; Smith, Cat. Br. Mus., 86f No. 1720 and fig. 10; Loeschcke in Tr. H., 313 fig. 2; RRS I, 296, 2; Saxl, fig. 133. See fig. 167.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
