Cautopates, Torchbearer of Mithras
Unknown · Roman Imperial, AD 389
A youth in Phrygian cap, short tunic, cloak, trousers and boots holds a torch pointed towards the ground, and a snake winds up beside him. He is Cautopates, the torchbearer of the setting sun and the companion of Cautes, whose torch is raised. The statue is carved in relatively shallow depth, only twelve centimetres thick, which suggests it stood against a wall or in a niche of the sanctuary. Notice the serpent, one of the animals of the bull-slaying scene, and the cheerful, slightly heavy face typical of late Roman provincial carving.
The figure belongs to the marble furnishings of the Mithraeum of Sidon, an underground chapel of the god Mithras, whose dedicatory inscription dates the group to the year three hundred and eighty-nine of our era. By then the cult was in retreat before Christianity, and the Sidon sculptures are among the last datable works made for it. The set passed into the collection of Louis de Clercq and was given to the Louvre by his heirs in nineteen sixty-seven; here it is reunited in one room.
Did You Know? Cautopates always lowers his torch, and worshippers reading the shrine from left to right saw in him the sun going down and the promise of its return.
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