Two-sided relief from Rückingen

TNMM 552 ↔ CIMRM 1137

The two-sided relief from Rückingen in Upper Germany shows an original composition, which is still legible despite the voluntary mutilation of the faces of all the protagonists. Each face can be divided into two iconographic fields.

On the front side, the upper register offers an unfolding of the myth in four horizontal bands in fifteen or so sketches, while the lower register offers the image of the tauroctony, perpetrated in a cave-shaped niche underlined by a scroll decorated with the twelve zodiacal signs. The bull appears strapped in a dorsal.

On the rear side, the upper part shows a hunting scene, with a rider (Mithras?) surrounded by wild animals in the centre. In the lower register, in high relief, the banquet scene is a counterpart to the tauroctony on the other side. Standing behind a table covered with the remains of the bull, on which the three sacrificial strips of the dorsuale can be clearly seen, are Sol and Mithras, both clothed, the dadophores standing a little lower, standing on either side of the table.

Sol, who has removed his radiated crown, holds up a rhyton in his right hand, while Mithras turns to one of the two torch bearers. Both Sol and Mithras touch the bull: Sol holds the tail, the end of which has turned into ears of wheat, and Mithras places a hand on the skin. On the right, a trophy stands, formed by the sword on the end of which the solar crown hangs.