Tauroctony from Naples

TNMM 464 ↔ CIMRM 174 & 175

White marble relief (H. 1.06 Br. 1.00 D. 0.12). Neapoli, apud illustrissimum ducem Calabriae, advectum ex Pausilippo (Iucundus, end 15th cent.) or, according to Capacius, in media crypta Pausilypana dum instauretur fuisse inventum dictitant. Subsequently in St. Antonio’s Church, then Museum Capodimonti, now Naples, Museo Nazionale (Inv. No. 6764).

Mithras kills the bull, whose tail ends in four ears. The god is dressed in tunica, flying cloak and anaxyrides. Round his breast an embroidered girdle. He looks at Sol. The snake with its head near the wound; a deformed small dog; the scorpion on the usual place; the raven on a rock behind the god. On either side Cautes (l) and Cautopates (r), cross-legged. In the upper corners, above a rocky part, the dressed bust of Sol (l) in a crown of seven rays and the bust of Luna (r) in diadem and crescent. On the lower border an inscription No. 175.

CIMRM 175

L.H.0.035.

Omnipotenti Deo Mithrae Appius / Claudius Tarronius Dexter v(ir) c(larissimus) dicat.

The relief was found in the 15th century during restoration works in the gallery known as Crypta Neapolitana. A thin band frames this almost square relief. In the center of the cave we can recognize Mithras, dressed in his usual attire, who plunges the dagger in the shoulder of the bull while grasping the animal by the nostrils. The stance of the bull is quite peculiar: the animal is not pressed to the ground but is fighting to get up. Its left foreleg is firmly pointed in the ground while the right one is lifted. A band (dorsuale) encircles its body. The dog is represented under the bull in the act of leaping toward the wound of the animal. The raven is on the left, perched on a small pile of rocks. The tochbearers flank the scene: Cautes on the left and Cautopates on the right. They are unusually small. On the upper corners of the representation we can recognize the busts of Sol (on the left) with radiate crown and the bust of Luna (on the right).

CIMRM II 174

Read Pausilipo instead of Pausilippo (remark made by Dr C. C. van Essen).

Read: in the top and bottom border inscription No. 175.

CIMRM II 175

Read Mitrhae instead of Mithrae; to be altered also in the epigraphical index p. 348 (first column).