Tauroctony from Mauls

TNMM 476 ↔ CIMRM 1400

Relief in limestone (H. 1.20 Br. 1.50) found near Mauls in the valley of Eisack between rocks in 1589. It was transported to the Library of Innsbruck in 1797; from the beginning of the 19th cent. in the Museum at Vienna (Wien); after World War II at Stertzing-Vipiteno.

In a grotto Mithras in Oriental dress kills the bull whose tail ends in corn-ears. The r.h. of the god is lost. The god wears a belt with a sheath over his r. shoulder. The dog and the serpent hold their heads near the wound; the raven is perched on the grotto’s border; the scorpion is in the usual place. Cautes (r) and Cautopates (l) hold with both hands their torches up- and downwards; they are cross-legged. In the two upper corners there are medallions in which the dressed busts of Sol and Luna. Sol (l) has a crown of nine rays one of which darts out in the direction of Mithras; Luna (r) has a crescent behind her shoulders. Between the two medallions runs a small border at the top of the relief. In its centre is a tabula ansata and on either side a running animal and two trees. The animal on the left is a ram; the one on the right is a bull underneath which also between trees a third animal is visible (bear or boar).

Other scenes divided from each other by horizontal rims are represented in the two borders of the relief.

L. border from top to bottom:

1) Jupiter raises up a lightning with his r.h. and he grasps a Giant by the hair.
2) Reclining god who holds a long object in his r.h., whose head rests on his l.h. (Saturnus or Oceanus).
3) Youthful Mithras being born from the rock With upraised hands.
4) Mithras in a somewhat stooping attitude is probably cutting reed.
5) Kneeling Mithras-Atlas with uplifted r.h.
6) Mithras leading the bull.
7) Lost.

R. Border from bottom to top:

8) Mithras carrying the bull.
9) Mithras sitting on a rock and extending his hands towards a person kneeling before him and touching Mithras’ knees. A third person standing behind the kneeling one (Mithras as an archer; water-miracle?).
10) Standing Mithras raises up an indistinct object with his r.h. and he lays his l.h. on the shoulder of Sol who is kneeling before him.
11) Mithras shaking hands with Sol.
12) Sol standing in a quadriga helps Mithras to ascend.
13) Half round kline with an animal’s skin beneath it. Behind it two heads, Mithras and Sol at the sacred repast.

Comments

Yannick Schmidt

Original is now in the Ötzi Museum in Bozen, but still not part of an exhibition.

Lit.:
Günther Kaufmann: Das Mithras-Kultbild von Mauls. In: Der Schlern vol. 98, 7 (2024) p. 4-51

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