Monumentum
Intaglio with Mithras and Abraxas at the Walters Art Museum
This unusual piece depicts Mithras slaying the bull on one side and the Gnostic god Abraxas on the other.
Intaglio with Mithras Tauroctonus and Abraxas
The Walters Art Museum (CC 0)
Intaglio with Mithras Tauroctonus and Abraxas
The Walters Art Museum (CC 0)
Intaglio with Mithras and Abraxas black and white
The Walters Art Museum (CC 0)
Intaglio with Mithras and Abraxas, Mithras impression
The Walters Art Museum (CC 0)
The New Mithraeum
30 Oct 2022
Updated on 29 Apr 2023
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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.
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.