Intaglio with Mithras and Abraxas at the Walters Art Museum

Horizontal rectangle hematite (1.9 x 2.7 x 0.4 cm), set in elaborate gold mounting. Baltimore, Waiters Art Gallery 42.868, formerly in Marlborough Collection.

Obv.: 'Bull to l., sacrificed by Mithra, who presses his r. knee upon its back, grasps a horn with his l.h. and slaughters the bull with a knife in his r.h., looking back as he does so. He wears Oriental dress, Phrygian cap, close-fitting ribbed tunic, scarf flying behind his shoulders and long closefitting trousers reaching to ankle. Below, a scorpion attacking the bull's testicles and a long snake, head reared as if to attach the

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