Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

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Ritual Horns

reconstructed from his monuments1—was bidden by the raven,
messenger of the Sun, to slay the great bull that had escaped from
his cave. Reluctantly he went in pursuit and caught the bull just
as it re-entered the cave. Closing its nostrils with his left hand,
with his right he plunged a knife deep into its flank. Thereupon
wonders ensued. Fresh forms of life sprang from the body of the
dying beast. Corn arose from its spinal marrow—witness the
bunch of corn-ears at the end of its tail. A vine grew from its
blood. The one plant furnished the mystics with bread, the other
with wine. In vain did the emissaries of darkness, the scorpion,
the ant, and the snake, attack the moribund monster, fastening on
its genitals or seeking to drain its blood. The seed of the bull,
collected and purified by the Moon, begat all manner of serviceable
creatures ; and its soul, guarded by Mithras' faithful hound, ascended
to heaven, where under the name of Silvanus it became the
protector of all flocks and herds. In short, the death of the bull
meant new life to the world at large2.

Before passing from the present section we must face one
outstanding difficulty. We have been maintaining that the horned
altar of the Mediterranean originated as the shrine of a buried
beast. It may be objected that, on this showing, the altar—hardly
to be distinguished from the divinity dwelling in it—was at one
time the actual object of cult.

That is a conclusion from which in fact we must not shrink.

above, Mithras as a child emerging from rock (hands lost); below, Mithras as a youth
advancing to seize the branches of a bush, of which the lower part is seen.

Fig. 390 = Back, (a) In the recess representing the cave the bull lies dead. Behind
it stand two figures—on the left Mithras in oriental dress and Phrygian cap holding
a horn, on the right Sol with long hair, chlamys, belt, etc. carrying a whip. Sol holds
out a big bunch of grapes to Mithras, who raises his hand in admiration. Between
them a Phrygian cap, surrounded by a circlet with seven rays (in part restored), rests on
a pole. To right and left of the bull are two children in oriental dress and Phrygian
caps bearing baskets of fruit (the child on the left almost entirely modern), (b) Above
the cave is a scene now much damaged. In the centre a male figure, probably Silvanus,
stands erect (lower half can be traced) ; and about him are grouped, from left to right,
various animals—boar, hound, horse (hoof and part of leg visible), sheep (?), hound,
hound, hound, bull.

This relief was originally so mounted as to turn about in its three-sided frame on two
iron pivots. Hence the absence of decoration on the back of the frame.

1 F. Cumont Texies et monuments etc. i. 159 ff., in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 3050 ff.,
in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 1953, Die Mysterien des Mithra2 p. 118 ff.

2 Cp. Porph. de antr. nymph. 18 <xeXr]vrjv re odaav yevecrecos TrpoaraTida /xe'Xicrcrav
€Ka\ovv aXXus re < /cat ><=7ret raupos fxev creXrjvr] /cat i)x//iofMa creXrjvrjs 6 ravpos, fiovyevels
5' at fiiXiaaai. /cat i/a>xat 5' et's yeveaw lovcrai fiovyeveis, /cat /BovkX6ttos debs 6 ttjv
yevecriv XeXrjdorcos anotiiov. The parallelism between the procreation of bees from a
bull and the Mithraic myth is here distinctly recognised.