Monumentum
Tauroctony from Naples
The marble relief of Mithras killing the bull in Naples bears an inscription that calls the solar god omnipotentis.
The New Mithraeum
30 Jan 2022
Updated on Jul 2024
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;…
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;…
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