This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience.
Find out more on how we use cookies in our privacy policy.

 
Monumentum

Tauroctony of Santo Domingo de Silos

Mithras slaying the bull appears as the sign of Capricorn in a zodiacal sequence on the Pórtico del Cordero of the Abbey de Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain.
Mithras as Capricorn on the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos

Mithras as Capricorn on the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos
Taliesin 

 
The New Mithraeum
27 Dec 2023
Updated on Jun 2024

The full article is reserved for our members.

Log in or create a free account to access the entire site.

In the upper left corner of the Pórtico del Cordero in the Benedictine Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, near Burgos, Spain, we find what is thought to be a representation of Mithras as a bull slayer.

The relief is part of a series of twelve square panels depicting the signs of the zodiac, with Mithras Tauroctonus being Capricorn. The Oriental god appears completely naked, except for his usual cloak. Instead of his Phrygian cap, he wears a turban, as seems to have been common in medieval iconography, if we compare this representation with the other two known to date, on a fresco of the

A…

Related monuments

Tauroctony of Aula Gotica

What appears to be a representation of Mithras killing the bull appears in the 12th century frescoes of the Basilica dei Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome.

Tauroctony of Monreale

On one of the capitals of the cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova in Monreale, Sicily, an unusual turbaned bull-slaying Mithras has been recorded.