Cautes (the Raised-Torch Torchbearer)
Roman Mithraic Mysteries · deity · roman imperial mithraism · Recorded classification
Cautes is the upward-torch member of the dadophoroi (torchbearers); with Cautopates he frames the central tauroctony, the pair generally read as the ascending and descending sun or the equinoxes.
Domains
- rising light
Powers
- to hold the torch raised toward the ascending light
Relations
- twin sibling: Cautopates (the Lowered-Torch Torchbearer)Cautes and Cautopates are the mirror-image torchbearer twins of the tauroctony.Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries, trans. Richard Gordon (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000). (secondary)
- subordinate to: Mithras Tauroctonos (the Bull-Slayer)He attends Mithras at the bull-slaying.Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries, trans. Richard Gordon (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000). (secondary)
Sources
- Cautes is one of the twin torchbearers (dadophoroi) flanking Mithras, his raised torch signifying the rising light, dawn or the spring equinox.: Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries, trans. Richard Gordon (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000). (secondary); Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). (secondary)