Cautes and Cautopates from Mithraeum III of Heddernheim

TNMM 408 ↔ CIMRM 1119

This statue [Cautes], originally acephalous, came to light in 1887 in Mithraeum Ill at Nida, in front of the tauroctony relief. Destroyed during an air raid in March 1944, after the war the sculpture was restored from the preserved fragments. The pillar and socle are modern. Cautes, standing with his legs crossed, holds a raised torch in his left hand and leans with his right on a narrow pillar, against which is positioned a gnarled shepherd's staff. He is dressed in a belted tunic with long sleeves and a mantle fastened at the right shoulder, and also wears pants and ankle boots and a Phrygian cap.

Discovered with the preceding one, the statue of Cautopates was also destroyed in March 1944, with only some fragments recoverable. The current reconstruction depends on a plaster cast of the original, made for the sanctuary of Mithras' created near Saalburg in 1903/1904. The posture of Cautopates is identical to that of Cautes, with the exception of his torch being pointed downwards. His Phrygian cap covers curly hair. Over a tunic with long sleeves and a belt, he wears a mantle fastened at the right shoulder. His tight, crumpled pants end above his ankle boots.