Relief with Mithras

INTRODUCTION
- Man and the stars
SECTION I
- The dawn of astronomy: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Biblical Cosmos
SECTION II
- The cosmos becomes a sphere
SECTION III
- The geometry of the cosmos
SECTION IV
- The skies of Islam
SECTION V
- Evangelisation of the cosmos
SECTION VI
- The Renaissance of Astronomy
SECTION VII
- Galileo: the cosmos through the telescope
SECTION VIII
- From Galileo to Newton

Red-figured krater depicting Helios in his chariot

Amphora from Campania with Atlas and Heracles

Zoom

Relief with Mithras, 2nd century A.D.
Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano, inv. 205837

Seizing the bull, Mithras deals it a blow to the neck with his sword. Plants beneficial to man are spawned when the bull's blood soaks into the earth. The god of evil sends a scorpion to try to stem this spread of vitality by poisoning the bull's seed. The bull is also attacked by a dog and a snake. To the left and right of Mithras we see Cautes and Cautopates. Cautes holds his torch aloft while Cautopates' torch is pointing downwards, representing the Sun's cycle from sunrise to sunset. In the upper registers we see the personifications of the Sun and the Moon, and above them a circular garland representing the sphere of the fixed stars, where the immortal souls to whom Mithras has revealed the path of salvation dwell.