Votive relief to Mithras

myminifactory

This relief vividly depicts the tauroctony, a pivotal scene where Mithras takes down a bull as part of an ancient ritual. The Mithraic mysteries, also known as Mithraism, was a mystical religion centered around the powerful god Mithras and flourished throughout the Roman Empire from approximately 1st to 4th century AD. In Mithraic iconography, the tauroctony is the most recurring representation of the deity, consistently showing him slaughtering a bull with precision, standing on the animal's hind foot while kneeling on its forefoot with the other leg, and casting a vigilant glance over his shoulder as he carries out this solemn act.