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Monumentum

Altar to Semele from Cologne

This sandstone altar found in Cologne bears an inscription to the goddess Semele and her sisters.
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The New Mithraeum
7 Nov 2023
Updated on May 2026

TNMM 729 ↔ CIMRM 1027

Altar in sandstone (H. 0.71) found in 1674.

The l. side of the altar is decorated with a tympanum against a pedum under which a large altar. On the r. side an altar with a thyrsus and erotala. The front bears an inscription:

Deae Semelae et / sororibus eiuis (sic!) / deabus ob honorem / sacri matratus / Reginia fraterna / mater nata et facta aram po/suit sub sacerdota[e] Seranio Catullo patre.

patre: certainly the father of a Mithras community which had relations with a cult for women with a mater.

CIL XIII 8244

Deae Semelae et / sororibus eiius[!] / deabus ob honorem / sacri matratus / Reginia Paterna / mater nata et / facta aram po/suit / sub sacerdotal[i] / Seranio Catullo / patre.
To the goddess Semele and her sister goddesses, for the honor of the sacred office of matron, Reginia Paterna, both born a mother and made, placed this altar under the priesthood of Seranius Catullus, Pater.

References

MMM II No. 574b.

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