The study of Roman Mithraism has consisted, in large part, of a series of interpretations and elucidations applied to a complex and enigmatic corpus of images. The ubiquitous central monument, the tauroctony (Fig. 17.1), in its more detailed examples, offers a bewildering array of images, among them the awkward, backward-glancing pose of Mithras, the suffering of the taurine victim, various symbolic animals observing or partaking in the sacrifice, several major and minor deities witnessing the act, and the visual narrative of the transitus, Mithras’ apparent sacred journey.
The usual visual center of the tauroctony, and the center of attention of the surrounding witnesses on the monument, is the sacrificial blow being struck by Mithras upon the shoulder of the bull. The placement of this wound is problematic, as will be shown, and is apparently unique to Roman Mithraism. Thus, I suggest that the wound may have meaning within Mithraism in addition to the obvious death of the bull. Another allusion to a bull in Mithraic iconography is the dismembered foreleg of a bull being carried by Mithras, raising the possibility that the foreleg in itself has some symbolic significance.
I began my search by poring through Vermaseren’s Corpus of Mithraic monuments.1 I tallied each monument for which the placement of the wound was discernible. Surprisingly, the cutting of the victim’s throat, one of the most common methods of sacrifice depicted in ancient art, accounted for only 3 percent of the wounds depicted in the Mithraic corpus. I also discovered that fully 70 percent of the wounds were inflicted in the shoulder.
Mithras is almost always depicted as straddling the bull while stabbing it in the shoulder with a dagger or short sword. The antecedent of this method of killing a bull is found in representations of the goddess Nike. Elements of the tauroctony traceable to the Nike images include the god grasping the bull by its nose or actually inserting fingers into the animal’s nostrils in order to extend the neck, thereby exposing the animal’s throat to the knife; the thrusting of a knee into the bull’s back in order to hold the animal down; and the extension of the god’s other leg backward in order to steady the sacrificer.2 There are notable differences, however, between the poses of Nike and Mithras. Nike is usually depicted as looking forward, intent upon the act she is about to perform, whereas Mithras is usually depicted with his head turned away from his knife-wielding arm, looking over his shoulder at the god Helios in the upper left-hand corner of the monument. The other significant difference is that Nike is depicted as being on the verge of cutting the bull’s throat, with the knife held out in front of the animal’s neck. This is one of the usual methods of killing an animal in Greek and Roman sacrifices. Mithras, by contrast, is dispatching the bull by stabbing it in the shoulder. This placement of the wound is an exception to the usual depiction of sacrificial methods, found in literature and art and in actual practice, of dispatching the victim by cutting its throat, chopping the neck with an axe, or stabbing it in the flank with a spear so as to hit the heart, as in the taurobolium.
Figure 17.1. Tauroctony.
From an anatomical viewpoint, the shoulder is not an optimal location at which to administer a fatal stab wound to a bull (Fig. 17.2). This is not a vital area of the animal’s anatomy. The heart is located at the bottom of the chest cavity, posterior to the forelegs, and, in a large animal such as a bull, several feet from the entrance wound at the shoulder.3 The vital jugular vein and carotid artery lie along the front of the throat, not on the sides of the neck, as in humans.4 Blood vessels supplying the legs are protected from above by the shoulder blades.
Figure 17.2. Bovine skeleton.
The huge scapula, or shoulder blade, of the bull covers the upper area of the forward ribs. The left and right scapulae almost touch at their tops, forming the characteristic hump at the shoulder.5 This configuration blocks easy access to the heart from the shoulder region. Indeed, the modern matador displays his skill by driving a sword into the small triangular space available between the tops of the scapulae. His long, curved weapon arcs downward through the animal’s chest with the heart as its intended target. Only a fatal wound to the heart will cause the collapse of the enraged animal. Mithras is not aiming for this small area on the centerline of the animal’s back, but is instead stabbing the right shoulder. Mithras’ dagger, or short sword, blocked by anatomy, is incapable of reaching the heart from its entry point at the shoulder. The traditional methods of sacrifice were expected to cause the quick collapse of the victim. Conversely, stabbing the muscular shoulder of the bull, far from any vital points, would more likely enrage rather than subdue the beast. Although this placement is only symbolic, and probably not a depiction of actual cult practice, it is a glaring anomaly. This suggests that the shoulder itself is the target.
The bull’s shoulder appears in Mithraic symbolism in images other than the tauroctony. Many tauroctony monuments include additional scenes on the left and right sides and across the top.6 These side scenes are thought to depict episodes in the transitus of Mithras, the significant events of Mithras’ birth, development, and ascension to the status of solar deity. One of the typical side scenes depicts Mithras wielding the dismembered foreleg of a bull in his right hand. Kneeling in front of Mithras is the god Helios, making a gesture of supplication. Mithras appears to be threatening Helios with the foreleg as if it were a club. This scene is interpreted as being the moment in which Helios acknowledges Mithras’ ascendancy over him as ruler of the heavens (kosmokrator). The foreleg is thus a symbol of Mithras’ superiority over the other god. This is certainly an eccentric weapon, and it should cause us to consider whether the disembodied bull’s foreleg bears cosmological or mythological symbolism, in keeping with the overall interpretations of the tauroctony. Where, then, do we find the origins of such symbolism? The foreleg of the bull, as it turns out, is a prominent icon in Egyptian mythology.
There has been relatively little consideration of the effect of Egyptian belief on the development of Mithraic doctrine and iconography.7 Certainly late Egyptian belief was known to Mithraism. Statues of Isis have been found in association with Mithraic icons.8 Her consort Sarapis was often equated with Mithras, Jupiter, or Saturn/Kronos on Mithraic monuments.9 Some Mithraic statues also hold the Egyptian ankh. Priests of Isis are known to have belonged to the higher grades of Mithraic initiation.10
The foreleg of a bull occupies a prominent place in traditional Egyptian belief, so much so that I propose the Egyptian pantheon of gods (the Ennead) and its associated myths as the origin of the Mithraic symbolism regarding the bull’s shoulder. As will be seen, the Seth-Osiris conflict results in a bull’s foreleg being placed at the north pole of the cosmic sphere. This object becomes a powerful and dangerous symbol of order, and of potential catastrophe. These attributes are invoked in the side scenes of tauroctony monuments depicting Mithras and Helios mentioned above.
The most direct link to Egypt is the so-called Mithrasliturgie, a spell found in the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, which originated in Roman Egypt.11 Not surprisingly, this spell is riddled with Egyptian magic rites, interspersed with revelations of the gods. The text provides a spell that allows the reciter’s soul to ascend into the heavens and travel along the northern polar axis of the earth, where the worshiper ultimately enters into the presence of Mithras. During the ascent, the soul encounters other deities, including Helios. In the magical papyri, Mithras is usually linked with this god, as he is in the tauroctony. After the worshiper greets Helios, the god walks toward the polar axis:
ταῦτά σου εἰπόντος ἐλεύσεται εἰς τὸν πόλον, καὶ ὄψῃ αὐτὸν περιπατοῦνταὡς ἐν ὁδῷ. (Preisendanz 1928-31, PGM 4.656-658)
After you have said these things, he will come to the celestial pole, and you will see him walking as if on a road. (Trans. Betz 1992)
Now the worshiper’s soul has reached the pole. Other groups of deities then appear, one of which is referred to as the “Pole-Lords”:
προέρχονται δὲ καὶ ἕτεροι Ζ' θεοὶ ταύρων μέλανα πρόσωπα ἔχοντεςἐν περιζώμασιν λινοῖς κατέχοντες Ζ' διαδήματα χρύσεα. οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱκαλούμενοι πολοκράτορες τοὺ οὐρανοῦ, οὓς δεῖ σε ἀσπάσασθαι ὁμοίωςἕκαστον τῷ ἰδίῳ αὐτῶν ὀνόματι. “χαίρετε, οἱ ἱεροὶ καὶ ἄλκιμοι νεανίαι,οἱ στρέφοντες ὑπὸ ἕν κέλευσμα τὸν περιδίνητον τοῦ κύκλου ἄξονα τοῦοὐράνοῦ.” (Preisendanz 1928-31, PGM 4.674-681)
There also come forth another seven gods, who have the faces of black bulls, in linen loincloths, and in possession of seven golden diadems. They are the so-called Pole-Lords of heaven, whom you must greet in the same manner, each of them with his own name: “Hail, O guardians of the pivot, O sacred and brave youths, who turn at one command the revolving axis of the vault of heaven.” (Trans. Betz 1992)
These bucephalic deities occupy a position in the sky that is similar to the polar guardians from the Egyptian tradition known as the “Spirits of the North.” In the Mithrasliturgie, their duties focus on the operation of the celestial pole, the axis of the cosmic sphere.
After the Pole-Lords are properly honored, the worshiper finally encounters Mithras in all his radiant glory:
κατερχόμενον θεὸν ὑπερμεγέθη, φωθτινὴν ἔχοντα τὴν ὄψιν, νεώτερον,χρυσοκόμαν, ἐν κιτῶνι λευκῷ καὶ κρυσῷ στεφάνῳ καὶ ἀναξυρίσι,κατέξοντα τῇ δεξιᾷ ξειρὶ μόσχου ὦμον χρύσεον, ὅς ἐστιν Ἄρκτος ἡκινοῦσα καὶ ἀντιστρέφουσα τὸν οὐρανόν, κατὰ ὥραν ἀναπολεύουσα καὶκαταπολεύουσα. (Preisendanz 1928-31, PGM 4.696-703)
A god descending, a god immensely great, having a bright appearance, youthful, golden-haired, with a white tunic and a golden crown and trousers, and holding in his right hand a golden shoulder of a calf: this is the Bear which moves and turns heaven around, moving upward and downward in accordance with the hour. (Trans. Betz 1992)
The bear in this passage is Ursa Major, the constellation that the Mithraeum at Ponza depicts as containing the North Pole.12 In the Greek magical papyri, this constellation (or, properly, a part of it; see below) is usually invoked as a manifestation of a goddess such as Artemis or Aphrodite, or receives a divine epithet itself, such as “Queen of Heaven.” The Mithrasliturgie is unusual in describing it as merely an object, albeit a powerful one. Within this constellation, we find the group of stars known to us as the Big Dipper (Fig. 17.3a-c). Although often mistakenly identified as a constellation, the Big Dipper actually forms just the torso and tail of the Great Bear, which is represented in full by the constellation Ursa Major. In the Mithrasliturgie, the Big Dipper acts as a lever that is attached to the polar axis. Thus, we discover the mechanism by which the heavens revolve: the Pole-Lords and Mithras use this lever to rotate the cosmic sphere.
Figure 17.3. (a) The Egyptian constellation of the Foreleg shown as a portion of the constellation Ursa Major; (b) the Foreleg (Big Dipper); (c) the Foreleg depicted as an adze.
While the Mithrasliturgie names this object (Bear) by drawing on Greek mythology (the story of the unfortunate nymph Callisto), its physical description as a bull’s shoulder is drawn from Egyptian astrology. The Big Dipper forms a constellation of its own in Egyptian astrology, where it is known as the Foreleg (Mes, Fig. 17.3b). The well-known zodiac from the Great Temple of Dendara provides a graphic display of the Egyptian circumpolar constellations, with the Foreleg at the center, occupying the celestial pole. This object came to be in the sky as a result of the SethOsiris conflict.
A version of the murder of Osiris has Seth transformed into a bull when he commits the act.13 The Papyrus Leiden I states that Seth stomped Osiris to death with his bovine foreleg:
The stars of the northern sky are called “the never setting ones.” They guard in the seven-star heavenly body the bull leg, the leg of Seth, with which he — as a bull—killed Osiris, and thereby prevent that a fight arises again. Fatigue in the southern sky and fight in the northern sky endanger the course of the earth. A lamentation [or complaint] before Re can bring it [i.e., the course of the earth] to a stop. After the ritual against evil, both skies could move towards each other. The southern sky could pull the northern sky into its movement, so that it moves also towards the West, and both finally fall down. (Pap. Leiden 1.348, Verso XI, 5ff. [Schott 1959: 328])
Figure 17.4. Procession of the Spirits of the North toward the Foreleg of Seth.
Although the Foreleg has been imprisoned, it is still a threat and requires a retinue of keepers (Fig. 17.4). The “never setting ones” in this passage are the sons of Horus, numbering four or seven depending on the source. They are considered guardians more in the sense of prison guards, rather than as maintainers of celestial function. The Mithrasliturgie employs these guardians as the seven Pole-Lords that turn the polar axis.
In order to prevent Seth from harming other gods, Horus, the son of Osiris, cut the Foreleg from Seth’s shoulder:
And after he had cut out his foreleg he threw it into the sky. Spirits guard it there: the Great Bear of the northern sky. The great Hippopotamus goddess keeps hold of it, so that it can no longer sail in the midst of the gods. (Pap. Leiden 1.348, Verso XI, 5ff. [Schott 1959: 328])
The Hippopotamus goddess is an Egyptian constellation near the North Pole that represents a manifestation of Isis.
A wall inscription from the tomb of Ramesses VI (twelfth century BCE) provides a description of this region of the sky similar to the above passages:
The Spirits of the North, these are the four gods among the followers. It is they who repulse the tempest of the sky on this the day of the Great Contest. It is they who take hold of the fore-rope and who maneuver the aft-rope on the barge of Re, together with the crew of the Imperishable Stars.14 The four gods who are at the north of the Thigh,15 they are resplendent in the midst of the sky, south of Orion, then they return to the Western Horizon.
As to this Thigh of Seth, it is in the Northern Sky attached to two firestone mooring posts by golden chains. It has been given in charge to Isis, in her form of a female hippopotamus, who guards it. The Water of His Gods is round about as the gods of the horizon. Re has placed them behind it, together with Isis, saying:
Prevent it from going to the Southern Sky toward the Water of his Gods which issued from Osiris, he who is behind Orion. (Piankoff 1954: 400)
In this passage, the polar guardians, referred to as the Spirits of the North, guide the sun (the barge of Re, the Egyptian equivalent of Helios’ chariot) through the sky using physical effort. This is analogous to the rotation of the cosmic sphere by means of the Foreleg as accomplished by the Mithraic Pole-Lords.
The Foreleg also came to be known in Egypt as an adze, which is similar to an axe that has the sharp edge of its blade placed at a right angle to the handle. The arrangement of stars in the Big Dipper/Foreleg resemble this instrument (Fig. 17.3c). A bull’s foreleg and an adze were both used in the Egyptian ritual of the Opening of the Mouth, performed by mourners as part of funerary rites (Fig. 17.5).16 This ritual was an entreaty to Osiris to allow the rebirth of a deceased person’s soul. The mummy was presented with a dismembered bull’s foreleg, symbolizing the leg of Seth. An adze was then touched to the mummy’s mouth while this passage was recited:
Horus has opened the mouth of NN with that wherewith he opened the mouth of his father wherewith he opened the mouth of Osiris, with the metal which came forth from Seth: the adze of metal. That with which the mouth of the gods was opened, with that do you open the mouth of NN so that he goes and speaks corporally before the great Ennead of the gods, in the palace of the ruler who is in Heliopolis. (Otto 1960: v. II, scene 46 text)
Figure 17.5. Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth.
In the Opening of the Mouth, we see that the bull’s leg was a ritual object as well as an important mythological symbol. Through the conflict of Seth and Osiris, the bull becomes an ambivalent object. It is a manifestation both of the murderous Seth and of the hero/victim Osiris in his reincarnation as the Apis bull. Thus, the Egyptians lived in fear of the large constellation hanging in the northern sky, while adoring the same creature in its complete organic form.
I have discussed possible symbolism of the bull’s foreleg. My initial question sought the purpose behind the placement of the stab wound in the bull’s shoulder. I suggest that the tauroctony scene depicts, inter alia, the initial stroke of the knife in the process of dismembering the bull’s leg. From the Mithrasliturgie, we learn that Mithras retains control of this powerful and dangerous object after it is placed in the sky. This implies that Mithras was a more powerful god than the native Egyptian deities, who could be slain by the foreleg (as Osiris was), and who were required to imprison the foreleg in the sky with chains and keep a constant fearful watch around it in order to prevent further mayhem. Indeed, Mithras is the only god in the Magical Papyri to exert control over this object. In addition, Mithras is able to wield the foreleg in side scenes of the tauroctony as a symbol of his supremacy, particularly over Helios/Sol, the former solar ruler.
A common epithet of Mithras is kosmokrator. The trials of the tauroctony may be the prerequisite for his ascension to the heavenly duties of the Mithrasliturgie. Whereas in the tauroctony, events apparently take place on the Earth, events in the Mithrasliturgie occur along the northern polar axis. The cutting out of the bull’s foreleg may represent the beginning of Mithras’ ascent to the status of supreme solar deity. Indeed, it is the power remaining within the excised foreleg that obtains for Mithras his passage into the sky on the chariot of Helios, his predecessor.
1. Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithraicae (CIMRM ) = Vermaseren 1956-60.
2. “Nike,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC ).
3. Popesko 1971: figs. 2, 6, and 39. The size of cattle breeds available to the Romans varied greatly within Italy itself (Porter 1991: 34), let alone within the farflung empire.
4. Popesko 1971: figs. 2, 6, and 39.
5. Ibid.
6. CIMRM Mon. 1430, as an example.
7. However, Roger Beck, in his 1998 article, provides a particularly relevant example of a possible transmitter of Egyptian knowledge into Roman Mithraism in the person of Ti. Claudius Balbillus, the Roman astrologer.
8. Witt 1975: 473.
9. Ibid. See also CIMRM Mon. 40 and 693, as examples.
10. Witt 1975: 487.
11. Preisendanz 1928-31 (PGM 4.475-829).
12. Vermaseren 1974. The North Pole is actually in the neighboring constellation of Ursa Minor, near the star Polaris. There has been no significant change in the pole’s location since Roman times.
13. Te Velde 1977: 86.
14. The Imperishable Stars is the proper name of Re’s barge.
15. The Thigh is another, inaccurate, name for the Foreleg.
16. Otto 1960, 2: scenes 43-46.
