Taurobole

The taurobole is an expiatory sacrifice during which one égorgeait a bull in the honor of Mithra. One made this sacrifice on a stone or a bored board of holes, placed itself above a pit in which the faithful one was sprinkled blood of the animal. It was thus purified. The tauroboles were practiced in general rather seldom and gave place to great ceremonies “of mass” during which many sacrifices were practiced. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the faithful ones made carve commemorative furnace bridges mentioning their name, the name of the officiating priest, the date. These furnace bridges taurobolic (improperly called themselves tauroboles ) were carved with a representation of the sacrificed animal: bull, ram, sheep, and sometimes of the ritual objects. It should be noted that the taurobole indicates only the sacrifice of a bull . If it is about a ram , one speaks then about criobole . But the term of taurobole became generic. Forty furnace bridges taurobolic are preserved in France, of which the half with the museum Eugene Camoreyt of Lectoure (Gers).

This rite was extended to the pertaining to worship practices of Cybèle, as the dedication to it to the taurobolic Autel testifies, dedicated to Lugdunum in the year 160 for the health of the emperor Antonin the Piles, like those of old the Lactora (today Lectoure).

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