Tauroctony from Capri

TNMM 715 ↔ CIMRM 172

White marble relief (H. 0.77 Br. 0.99 D. 0.06). Naples, Museo Nazionale (Inv. No. 6733). According to the publication of Romanelli, a certain Giraldi is said (p. 91) to have found it at a farmer. The opinion, that the relief would have been found on Capri in the cave of Matromania (1), is based on an assertion of Rezzonico (p. 60), who saw it in 1794 in St. Constanzo’s Chapel. In 1816 it was in the Museo Borbonico already, but the additional sketch of the publisher is No. 408.

Mithras killing the bull, whose tail ends in ears. The god looks at the raven, which is seated on a rock-stone behind him. The dog, standing with its hind-legs on a piece of stone, has been sprung up against the bull; the snake holds its head near the wound, the scorpion at the testicles. On either side Cautes(r) and Cautopates (l), not cross-legged. In the upper corners the busts of Luna with crescent on her front and of Sol with radiate crown around the curled hair. One of the seven rays is shooting out in the direction of Mithras.

(1) It is very doubtful, that the relief was found in the cave of Matromania or in its immediate neighbourbood. According to Maiuri in Boll. Arte (S.III) XXV, 1931, 150 this cave was not used as a Mithraeum, but as a Nymphaeum. Cf. Technau in JdI 1932, 306 (personal note of Cumont).

CIMRM II 172

For the 'grotta di Matromania' see now Maiuri, Capri, 80ff. The Mithras-relief: 86 and fig. 48.