Cautopates (the Lowered-Torch Torchbearer)

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)
• twin sibling: Cautes (the Raised-Torch Torchbearer)

Sources

• Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries, trans. Richard Gordon (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000).
• Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).