Tauroctony in the British Museum

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


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