Mithras Tauroctony from Oedipus Aegyptiacus

This black-and-white woodcut shows Mithras, wearing a Phrygian cap and flowing cloak, kneeling on the back of a bull to sacrifice it with a short blade. The composition is heavily annotated with letters K-Z corresponding to an index of astrological and esoteric concepts listed in the left margin. At the bottom, a dog and a snake reach toward the bull's blood, while a lion lies below; to the right, a stylized tree serves as a marker for the solar cycle. The style is schematic and diagrammatic, typical of 17th-century hermetic illustrations intended to decode ancient mysteries through a Christian-Platonic lens.

This image is from Athanasius Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1652-1654), which attempted to reconstruct the 'prisca theologia' or ancient wisdom by synthesizing Egyptian, Persian, and Hermetic traditions. Kircher interprets the Mithraic mysteries as an allegory for solar and planetary influences on the terrestrial world.