Intaglio with Tauroctony from The Met
TNMM 769 ↔ CIMRM 2361
Magical red and green jasper intaglio. The obverse shows Sol on a quadriga, naked and crowned, wearing a cloak, raising his right hand and holding a globe surrounded by two intersecting circles in his left hand. Above him is ABLANATHANALBA, a palindrome in Greek letters. At the bottom we can read TUXEUI.
On the reverse is a classical representation of Mithras Tauroctonos. Mithras, wearing his Phrygian cap and dressed in eastern fashion, on a bull, in whose neck he ploughs a dagger. Cautes, Cautopates, Corvus, Serpent, Dog and Scorpion seem to be missing.
Provenance
[With George Eastwood, London]; before 1866, purchased by Reverend Charles William King from G. Eastwood; until 1878, collection of Rev. C. W. King, Cambridge, England; 1878, purchased by John Taylor Johnston from Rev. C. W. King; 1878-1881, collection of John Taylor Johnston, New York; acquired 1881, gift of John Taylor Johnston.
Main inscription
TUXEUI.
References
- Campbell Bonner (1950) ‘Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian’. Humanistic Series.
- Reinhold Merkelbach (1994) Mithras. Ein persisch-römischer Mysterienkult.
- The Met (2024) Jasper intaglio: Sol in a quadriga (four-horse chariot).
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