Mithraeum of Santa Prisca

The Mithraeum was discovered by chance in 1934 under the Church of Santa Prisca by the Augustinian Fathers; to build it, the walls of two buildings were used: one dating back to the end of the 1st century AD. and another, datable to the 2nd century, characterized by two aisles, on which the church was later built.

 Datable to the 3rd century AD,the mithraeum, consists of a main room with a rectangular plan where the ritual banquet took place during which the adepts entered into communion with the god. This environment is preceded by two niches with the representations of Cautes and Cautopates, the two Mithraic geniuses who symbolized sunrise and sunset. Today only the Cautes marble sculpture remains, with the raised torch.

In the back wall there is a large niche inside which is placed the statue depicting Mithras killing a bull and the reclining god Saturn built with fragments of amphorae covered with gilded stucco. An inscription indicates that the mithraeum was already in use in 202 AD.

The side walls are frescoed with the paintings of the sacred procession of worshipers carrying liturgical offerings; in the back wall of the central room there is another niche decorated with seven concentric circles representing the planetary sphere.

The mithraeum was destroyed around 400 AD. in a violent manner, probably by the Christians before the construction of the Church of Santa Prisca.

Photo: Courtesy Sovrintendenza Speciale di Roma