June

Santa Maria Capua Vetere

Grade:

Sign: Gemini/Cancer

CIMRM: 180

Second century tauroctony at Santa Maria Capus Vetere.

I can honestly say I know very little about this mithraeum, so I’m typing this while leaning over the CIMRM (thanks again, Erica, for this awesome b-day present!) S. Maria has, however, aided me in the past.

In my house and in my mithraeum, Cautes and Cautopates are referred to as “the boys.” They stand on either side of the door into the studio, so Cautopates (who looks remarkably like Kirk Douglas) is in my sights at all times. I’d have to move to see Cautes.  (And in typing that out I realized they are backwards and when next I get up I’ll switch them!)

The boys are as common in mithraic iconography as the essential tauroctony. In fact, they frequently appear, when space permits, within the tableau itself. It is also pretty common to have them in 3D somewhere else within a mithraeum. So, while planning my mithraeum, I knew I’d need them both, and went the easiest route possible: I took my chosen image, made them large enough to fit on 2 pieces of 11X17 paper (I did this in Word), printed them out and colored them in. (A friend later pointed out that if I had colored them in prior to printing I would have saved a buttload of markers and sore wrists. Live and learn.) I then mounted them on cardboard (which is why they look like they’re standing in boxes) and trimmed the cardboard around them so as not to be seen. The bottom, uncolored cardboard folds under and I tape them in the back so they’re upright. Easy peasy, if somewhat unstable. I used CIMRM 165-166 as my “base” since they are the most impressive and complete I could find.

But it was to CIMRM 181 that I turned to for coloring, for whereas CIMRM 165-166 are remarkably complete, CIMRM 181 is remarkably vivid. In fact, I used it to make the sign for the convention.

I spent a pleasant evening looking into the boys because if you look at Cautes in the tauroctony, you’ll see he has a bow in his right hand. Sadly I haven’t found an image I can get close enough to to see if there’s a rooster at Cautopates’ feet. The bow and the rooster aren’t common and looking for similar variations was fun.

The quick list of things, other than a torch, for the boys to be seen with comes out of Clauss’ book. For Cautes at the bull’s tail: a severed bull’s head (below right), wheat, a pine cone and he typically stand with his legs crossed, right over left. Cautopates, at the bull’s head, can been seen with: a rooster, a scorpion (below right) and he stands legs crossed left over right.

Terrific article on the boys here.