today someone was like "oh do you know that mithraeum in ostia that has like the copy of the huge statue of the tauroctony? that's my favourite"
me slowly hiding the postcard on my wall of that specific mithraeum where i literally sobbed because i was too happy and too excited and it was beautiful to me "i have no idea what you're talking about"
it's the mithraeum of the baths of mithras, btw. for visuals:
@telling-tragedy asked me about my favourite mithreum, but i just want to take the chance to show multiple ones i love!
in ostia there's just so many different mithraea, even more than the ones that are usually signaled on the maps (something i found out while doing a silly project for my GIS class to map them). but a couple of them are incredibly lovely and interesting and filled with mosaics showing symbols of the seven grades of initiation, zodiac signs and planets. they're the mithraeum of felicissimus and the mithraeum of the seven spheres:
i've visited some in rome as well, but i do think that the one that impressed me the most was the one under the basilica of st. clemente (which was built upon the previous church, and above a roman house, the imperial mint of rome and the mithraeum in question). it's really suggestive because it's really quite dark when you reach the area, there's the sound of water in the background (and i also had a heart attack from plumbing suddenly making the loudest sounds known to humankind), and there's other rooms that were used by the members aside from the main one.
my dream is to visit the one underneath the circo massimo. it was the first one i ever knew about and that actually made me obsessed immediately, but despite me trying a couple of times to visit, it's only accessible through guided tours and i sadly wasn't in the city every time they were available. second row: there's also some beautiful painted ones, tbh like the mithraeum barberini. and elsewhere in lazio there's the mithraeum of marino which is stunning as well. in both mithras' mantle has stars in it!
honorable mentions to beautiful mithraea around the world i do not know if i'll ever be able to visit but that i'm absolutely in love with and i loved reading about:
the mithraeum of hwarte (syria) is probably the one that amazed me the most and my absolute favourite. its painted decoration is insane, and depicts scenes from various myths, including ones not usually depicted around (not even in the scenes represented around the central one in specific types of tauroctony reliefs/paintings).
the mithraeum of dura europos (always syria, they had great taste if i have to be honest). i like the motif of mithras riding a lot, and i love how it was declined in different areas of the empire. also...its tauroctony is so lovely because there's some important members represented, which is not really something that was common, and it shows how different the mysteries and iconographic conventions were depending both on the specific province/city and also on the local communities' needs and ideas.
the mithraeum i of ptuji (slovenia) gets a mention mostly because it has a STATUE of the transitus of the bull, which is commonly only depicted as a secondary scene in reliefs and paintings:
okay i'll stop. sorry.
also i just remembered! there's one that recently was reopened to the public in my region, not far from monfalcone (in duino, specifically) but i still haven't visited rip. it's inside a cave and it's stunning:
also edit: realized i confused the mithraeum of the seven gates (which is also quite lovely) with the mithraeum of the seven spheres, sorry! this is actually the latter:
had this post saved so i could add photographs of a mithraeum from jajce (bosnia and herzegovina) my love, the tauroctony scene is massive!
