The painted Mithraeum of Palazzo Barberini

The Mitreo Barberini is one of the best-preserved mithraea. It is located between the rear facade of Palazzo Barberini in via delle Quattro Fontane and via San Nicola da Tolentino. Following building works in 1936, the remains of a 2nd-century building were discovered on the site, the western part of which had been transformed into a mithraeum in the 3rd century.

The hall is covered with a barrel vault and side benches (præsepia) where participants in the rite would lie. The painting on the back wall is similar to those in the mithraeum of Marino and the mithraeum of Capua. The central panel presents the usual tauroctony, where Mithra kills the bull, whose blood is sucked by a dog and a serpent while a scorpion stings his testicles. To the sides are the two dadophori, Cautes and Cautopates, who assist the scene carrying torches.

In the upper part, two curved lines indicate the celestial vault, within which the zodiac signs are represented. In the center, a god with a lion's head stands on a globe, wrapped in the coils of a serpent representing the coils of time, or eternity. In the upper corners to the right and left, the Sun and the Moon are depicted. On the sides of the central scene are ten small panels of varying dimensions on two vertical bands, which depict the sacred history of Mithra, including his birth from a rock, the flow of water from a rock, and his ride on the chariot of the Sun.\n Together with the mithraeum of Santa Prisca, it is the only painted mithraeum in the area and provides important information on the mythology and ritual of the cult of Mithra.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons