Tauroctony from Monreale

TNMM 764

Mithras, dressed in oriental garb but wearing a turban instead of his usual Phrygian cap, slays the bull. His position on the animal follows Roman convention, although reversed horizontally. He holds one of the bull’s horns with one hand, while with the other he plunges his dagger into its neck.

As in the other two medieval depictions of Mithras Tauroctonus found to date, the crow, the scorpion and the dog have been omitted. The image also lacks the snake that appears in the Santo Domingo de Silos relief.

The image of Mithras belongs to the double capital number 22 in the south aisle. It includes other ancient figures such as a young naked man, probably Eros, riding a sea monster, a female bust, an eagle and two naked men lying, who could be river gods.

The Cathedral of Monreale, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, is located in the metropolitan area of the city of Palermo, Sicily. It is considered one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in the region. It was begun between 1166 and 1185 by William II of Sicily. In 1182, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, the church was raised to the rank of metropolitan cathedral as the seat of the diocese of Monreale, and later, in 1183, it became the archdiocese of Monreale.

The sculpted capital with the Mithraic episode belongs to a series of historiated capitals in the cloister. Of the more than one hundred capitals that make up the cloister, only 15 are historiated. The themes are mostly biblical, including the lives of the apostles, episodes from the lives of Christ, St. John the Baptist and Lazarus, Adam and Eve, Jacob, Noah, Joseph and Samson, among other figures such as the virtues, etc. William II of Sicily has also been depicted offering the cathedral to the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus on the capital number 8 of the west aisle.