Getting to know your Mithraic Tauroctony

[moobu2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraeum"> A Mithraeum is a place of worship for the followers of the mystery religion of Mithraism. Presumably all of them contained a Tauroctony. You have to remember everyone thought they lived at the center of the universe and all the heavenly bodies revolved around them.

Below is a fairly good representation of a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauroctony">Tauroctony. A Tauroctony is a relief carving or a painting of Mithra killing Taurus the bull. I like this one because it depicts the Milky Way inside Mithra’s cloak. See the stars with a blue background under Mithra's cloak? That's the Milky Way, well, a representation of the Milky Way. There are tons of these Tauroctony’s scattered all over what was the Roman Empire - around the northern Mediterranean and parts of Europe and Britain. While they're all slightly different from one another, there are some strong similarities as well. Nearly all Mithrium contained a Tauroctony which depicted Mithras killing the bull (the zodiac sign Taurus) by stabbing it in it’s neck with a dagger while he (Mithras) looks away to his right. There’s a small dog (the constellation Canis minor) lapping at the blood dripping from the wound. There’s the snake (the constellation Hydra) that is very interested in the wound as well. There’s the scorpion (Scorpio the zodiac sign) that is pinching at Taurus’s testis. There’s usually a crow (the constellation Corvus) which is always perched to Mithras right. There’s commonly what appear to be twins on either side of Mithras (Gemini maybe) each holding a torch, one up and one down, which represents the spring and fall equinox. Then there’s the sun above to his right and the moon above to his left personified and given human faces, sometimes entire human figures. Some of them have more figures in the Tauroctony easily identified with astrology, like a lion for Leo or a ram for Aries for instance, some have less, but once you understand the basic astrological concept, they're easily recognizable.



Here's another Tauroctony. See the bulls tail? its carved as wheat which represents Virgo. The other scenes probably tell some story similar to the stations of the cross in Catholic mythology. Virtually no written Mithraic texts survive (wonder why) so the meaning of some of the Tauroctony is lost. I think it tells a secret story about the cosmos when the age of Taurus ended and Aries began. Anyway, the barbaric "sport" of Bullfighting evolved from Mithra killing Taurus worship.



See the 2 guys holding the torches on either side of Mithras? One of them holds his torch up while the other holds his pointed down. The torch pointed down represents Autumn and the torch pointed up represents Spring. It's similar to The Jesus crucifixion allegory with the 2 thieves on either side. One thief rejects Jesus and represents autumn and the other “good thief” say's "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise", he's spring.

Of course Jesus represents the sun and him on the cross represents the summer AND winter solstices and the 2 thieves are the spring and autumn equinoxes. It's all astrology.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. fascinating!

All these guys that were born on december 25th of a virgin!!

What coincidence! Mithra, Osiris, Apollo, Jesus.......:sarcasm:

[Why Syzygy]

4. *Israel*

Is = Isis
Ra = Ra god
El = El god

[laconicsax]

5. It's the Holy Trinity. n/t

[okasha]

9. False etymology.

The acutal name of "Isis" was "Auset." "Isis" is the Greek version and is considerably later than the designation "Israel" for a people or territory.

[Why Syzygy]

11. I suggest

that the official history has gaps large and small in its reporting. If that is disputed, there's no basis for idea exchange.

[okasha]

8. Mithras was born from a rock.

How do you determine the sexual experience of a piece of granite? Inquiring minds want to know.

Neither Osiris nor Apollo was born of a virgin. Both--and the 3 others of Osiris' set of quads, Set, Isis and Nephthys--were all produced by their parents' having sex.

[laconicsax]

10. "How do you determine the sexual experience of a piece of granite?"

Probably the same way theologians determine everything else.

[okasha]

12. I had no idea

that the person making the claim that 1 Greek syllable + I Egyptian syllable + 1 Canaanite syllable = the Greek/Latin version of "Yisroel" was a theologian. S/he certainly isn't a linguist.

This kind of nonsense is only half a step removed from a claim that Jesus spoke English--because it's right there in the Bible! In red!

[laconicsax]

13. And it's equally as plausible as other 'respectable' religious beliefs.

Such as:

-Saying a few Latin words turns a wafer into the flesh of someone who died nearly 2000 years ago.
-Latin words also turn ordinary merlot into that person's blood.
-A god impregnated a woman with himself.
-Upon death, one becomes the god of another planet.
-Upon death, the soul is transferred to another person or creature.
-Believing the right thing is more important than doing the right thing.

And so on.

[aquart]

2. Mithra was pretty late to the bull worship party. Please.

He was a bloody ROMAN. Romans weren't the originators of anything that wasn't engineering or legal.

Remember that little incident with the Hebrews and the GOLDEN CALF???? The bull-leapers of Crete?

But I adore that pre-Christian cross as a seasonal wheel. That's very nice.

The sacrifice of a sacred bull might have been transformed into a combat story but the essence is the killing of the bull and that pre-dates Rome by millenniums.

[rug]

3. Glenn Beck did the dsame thing on Rockefeller Center's murals.

[bengalherder]

6. Bookmarking for further perusal, thanks! n/t

[Viva_Daddy]

7. Thanks for sharing this

Your post will help many to correctly understand the true meaning of what has for too long been misunderstood about Greco-Roman iconography and religious imagery.

It ain't history, folks. It's mythology!