Intaglio with Tauroctony from The Met

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, …