Monumentum
Tauroctony relief from Fleischmann Collection
This relief of Mithras killing the bull includes an unusual owl at the feet of Cautopates and a cock next to Cautes.
Fleischmann Collection, New York
Christie's
The New Mithraeum
15 May 2023
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This relief was once the centerpiece of a Mithraeum, providing all of the expected iconographic elements for a small congregation devoted to this mystery cult. The scene represents the struggles between light and dark, good and evil, life and death, the cosmological victory of the sun over the moon and the astrological journey of the soul after enlightenment.