1st-4th century AD. A stone plaque with arched top and flat base; in the centre a wreath enclosing the image of Mithras wearing Phrygian cap, cloak billowing behind, kneeling on the back of a bull and plunging a dagger into its neck; to either side of Mithras' head the bust of Sol and Luna; to the left hand side of Mithras is Cautes holding a torch up, and to his right is Cautopates holding a torch down; below the bull a snake and scorpion, at the neck of the bull a dog; around the wreath a number of scenes relating to the myth of Mithras; traces of pigment. 6.24 kg, 25.5 x 30cm (9 3/4 x 12"). Property of a Finchley, London, UK gentleman; acquired from a sale in Denham, Oxfordshire, UK, in 2014. Cf. Clauss, M. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries, London, 2001. Mithras had his origins in ancient Persia and was adopted by the Romans who developed a mystery cult around him based on salvation and the revealing of secrets. The cult was only open to men and was extremely popular with soldiers, with the majority of his shrines being associated with military sites, such as along Hadrians Wall. Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation through which the initiates moved. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those united by the handshake which is based on the pact between Mithras and Sol. They met in underground temples, called Mithraea, which survive in large numbers; these were small buildings that imitated the cave in which Mithras slew the cosmic bull and where the members celebrated the rites of the god and shared a sacred communal meal. The majority of the information that we have about Mithraism comes from the reliefs, and other images, that have been found in the shrines. In every Mithraeum the centrepiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred cosmic bull, called the tauroctony, that was housed in a screen at the apse of the shrine; the tauroctony scene could also have other narrative images relating to the myth of the god. Mithras is shown wearing Persian clothes, such as a baggy tunic and trousers and wearing a Phrygian cap, and kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood that pours from the neck; a scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven, the messenger of Sol, is flying around, or is sitting, on the bull. Three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank. The two torch-bearers are on either side, dressed like Mithras, Cautes with his torch pointing up and Cautopates with his torch pointing down. The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength. Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a quadriga or depicted as a bust. A ray of light often reaches down to touch Mithras. At the top right is Luna, with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a biga, or again, as a bust. In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with Sol and sharing a meal with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot. The interpretation of the images is problematical due to the secrecy of the cult and the lack of literature relating to it. The slaying of the cosmic bull clearly has a beneficial role for mankind due to the life giving blood that is shed and the ears of corn that grow from the bull's tail. Some reliefs have been found with the paint surviving and show the inside of the cloak of Mithras decorated with stars, such as that from Marino, Italy . This, and the presence of the encircling zodiac signs, has been interpreted as relating to specific points in the year that were celebrated as key festivals and were depicted in a cryptic manner. Another theory is that the Mithraic mysteries began in the Graeco-Roman world as a religious response to the discovery by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus of the astronomical phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes – a discovery that the entire cosmos was moving in a hitherto unknown way and interpreted as the existence of a powerful new god capable of shifting the cosmic spheres and thereby controlling the universe. Fine condition. Rare.
