Tauroctony relief from Apulum

TNMM 797 ↔ CIMRM 1973

White marble relief (H. 1.13 Br. 1.45 D. 0.10-0.23), found in the ruins of Apulum (= Alba Julia = Gyula Fehervár = Karlsburg) without further details. Formerly in the Bathyani Library, now in the Muzeul Regional (Inv. No. 203/II).

In a grotto Mithras kills the bull which wears a belt and whose tail ends in corn-ears. The god’s trousers are decorated with a diamond-shaped embroidery-pattern. Cautes (r) and Cautopates (l) are in Oriental dress and cross-legged.

Cautes holds an object (head?) in his l.h. The dog leaps up against the bull’s breast; the serpent creeps over the ground; scorpion; the raven is perched on the top of one of the two stems which are represented on either side of this main scene.

In the border of the grotto there are seven burning altars between daggers-trees-sticks with Phrygian caps but this series ends on the r. in a tree and a Phrygian cap, on the l. in a tree and a dagger. In the l. upper corner the dressed bust of Sol in a nimbus and in a crown of eleven rays one of which darts out towards Mithras.

In the r. upper corner is the dressed bust of Luna with a crescent on her forehead.