Two figures relief from Via Zanardelli
TNMM 997 ↔ CIMRM 419
Marble relief (H. 0.34 Br. 0.30 D. 0.13), probably found in Rome during the construction of the Palazzo Primoli along the Via Zanardelli. Was in the private colI. of Franz Cumont, now in the Belgian Academy in Rome.
On a base two persons standing side by side, with their backs against the wall. The left one is entirely naked but for a loincloth, and is entwined by a serpent, which rests its two heads on the god’s shoulders. In his two hands, which he holds stiffly pressed against his body, he carries an Egyptian ânkh. Two ribbons beside his head, which has got lost, prove, that he wore an Egyptian klaft (Egyptian Aion identified with the Mithraic). By his side stands a goddess, somewhat smaller, dressed in a chiton, which leaves her left breast uncovered. Over it she wears a fringed cloak. In her upraised l.h. she probably held a sistrum; the l. forearm is lost, it hung limply by her side. She wears sandals (Korè).
References
Cumont in CRAI 1928, 274f and fig.; Pesce in BullSRAA 1939, 252 and fig. 12; Levi in Hesperia XII, 1944, 277 fig. 6; Vermaseren, Mithrasdienst Rome, 102. See fig. 116.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
