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Monumentum

Tauroctony relief of Villa Borghese

This is one of the three reliefs depicting Mithras killing the bull that the Louvre Museum acquired from the Roman Villa Borghese collection.
 
The New Mithraeum
24 Oct 2023

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White marble relief (H. 1.63 Br. 1.87 D. 0.23-Q.35). At first in Rome, Villa Borghese; nowadays Paris, Louvre, Inv. No. 1024. Probably third century A.D.

Montelatici, Villa Borghese, 165; 181; Zoega, Abh., 148 No. 4; Clarac, Mus. Sculpt., II 307 No. 58 and Pl. 204 No. 58; de Hammer, Mithriaca, Pl. XXII; Lajard, Intr., Pl. LXXVI, 2; Froehner, Not. Sculpt., 502 No. 570; MMM II 223ff No. 57 and fig. 53; 481 No. 57a; Cecchelli in Roma 1941, Taf. XXII.

In a rocky cave Mithras as a bullkiller: The god’s face has an expression of effort or grief. The dog and the serpent are present; the

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