Tauroctony from Pisa

TNMM 604 ↔ CIMRM 663

White marble relief (H. 0.44 Br. 0.55), the r. upper corner of which is missing. 'Ritrovato incassato in un muro della stabile dei Signori Eredi Chiocchini in Pisa' (Lasinio). The inventary from 1883 mentions, that this house was situated in the Via l'Acciughe (quoted by Papini). Now in Campo Santo at Pisa.

Mithras as a bullkiller. Dog and serpent near the wound; the scorpion on the usual place; the raven on a rocky stone. On either side Cautes (l) and Cautopates (r). In the uppercorners the bust of Sol in radiate crown and the bust of Luna in a velum. Traces of black-painting.

The presence of an ancient temple dedicated to the cult of Mithras in the territory of the city of Pisa is attested by the discovery of a marble slab depicting the scene of the Tauroctony, the ritual slaughter of the bull. The slab was found in the area where the archaeological complex of the Monumental Cemetery was later built, which today stands proudly among other famous monuments in the city's Piazza dei Miracoli.

It is a classical representation, with few variations from the general case. The god holds the beast's nostrils with his left hand, while his right hand performs the act of sacrifice. The god's face is turned backwards, with cold impassivity, or rather with the wise detachment typical of the initiate, that the act he is performing is a sacred one. The blood gushing from the wound is drunk by the dog at the bottom, together with the other animals involved in the ceremony: the snake and the scorpion.

In the upper part of the slab, at either end, are the classical representations of Sol and Luna, the former as the turreted face of a young man superimposed on the solar disc, the latter as a young maiden with a veiled head superimposed on a horizontal crescent. Below, in corresponding positions, are the two Daphoros, wearing Phrygian caps and holding lighted torches. Cautes, with the torch raised to symbolise the supremacy of light, is rightly placed under the solar figure, while Cautopates, with the torch lowered to symbolise the prolongation of the hours of darkness, is placed under the lunar figure.

The only real peculiarity in this depiction concerns the placement of the raven, the animal sacred to the god Mercury, who presides over the first initiatory degree of the followers of the mystery cult, called Corax, which in Latin means 'raven'. We find it resting on a rocky spur erected behind the god. The black bird is usually depicted perched on the fluttering cloak of Mithras, as if it had been magically frozen in place. The black colour of the bird, representing the first degree of the initiatory scale, represents Nigredo, mystical death, descent into the underworld, alchemical decay: the obligatory passage of spiritual evolution. Black is also the colour of darkness, of the depths of the earth: both in the cult of Mithras, which took place in subterranean places or in buildings vaulted in imitation of the cave where Mithras was said to have made his sacrifices, and in those of the Great Mother, where the deities worshipped were often 'chthonic' in character. Very often the two types of cult were linked, so much so that we often find temples dedicated to the cult very close to each other (as in the Campo della Magna Mater, near Ostia Antica) or even shared (as in some mithraea found near Hadrian's Wall).

In the Pisan plaque, the crow is perched on a rock in the shape of a truncated cone. This is very reminiscent of the stone of Pessinunte, which symbolically represented the goddess Cybele in the cult dedicated to her. Mithras, the so-called Petra Genitrix, was also born from a stone. The two types of cult were therefore closely linked, as the Pisan Taurobolio amply demonstrates.