Cautopates (the Lowered-Torch Torchbearer)
Roman Mithraic Mysteries · deity · roman imperial mithraism · Recorded classification
Cautopates is the downward-torch torchbearer, mirror of Cautes; together they express the cosmic dualities (rising/setting, spring/autumn) of the Mithraic cosmos.
Domains
- waning light
Powers
- to hold the torch turned down toward the waning light
Relations
- 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)
- twin sibling: Cautes (the Raised-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)
Sources
- Cautopates is one of the twin torchbearers flanking Mithras, his lowered torch signifying the waning light, dusk or the autumn 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)