CIMRM 230-231 - Statue of tauroctony. Ostia Museum, Italy. Also a duplicate once in the Giustiniani collection.

By: Roger Pearse. Taken May 2013 at the site museum in Ostia. A reproduction stands in the Mithraeum of the "Baths of Mithras" (CIMRM 229).

From: Cathedrals and Crocodiles. By "Dr. Croc." The inscription is not visible unless you know to look for it.

A faint inscription in Greek on the chest of the bull can be translated as "Kriton the Athenian made (the statue)". By Michael Fuller from here.

By: Roger Pearse. Note the joins at the arm and the head.

By: Roger Pearse. The museum label - not all items are labelled - indicating this is "Inv. 149".

By: Roger Pearse. The snake.

Closeup of the right hand of Mithras holding the sword that would be used to slay the Bull of Heaven. This 1st century statue was discovered in 1939; on display in the museum of Ostia, Italy. By Michael Fuller from here.

The Giustiniani duplicate. From CIMRM.

The Giustiniani duplicate, in 1999. From Stanford.

Two torsos of Mithras, one at Ostia and a duplicate one, stolen from the Giustiniani collection, sold to the Getty Museum, and returned to Italy in 1999.

CIMRM entry

230.
Large white marble statue (H. 1.70 L. 1.93 Br. 0.58), placed on a base underneath one of the funnels.
Calza in BCR 1938,307; Le Arti XVII, 1939,389; v. Buren in AJA 1939,513 fig. 5; Italia, 41, 1940,40; Fuhrmann in AA 55, 1940, 428ff with fig. 17; G. Becatti in Riv. I. A. St. A VII, 1940, 88f and fig. 59; Cumont in CRAI 1945, 412 fig. 2; RA (S. 6) 1947, 6; Raissa Calza, Mus. O., No. 149; Vermaseren, 26ff and fig. opposite p. 141; G. M. A. Richter, Three Critical Periods, New York 1951; 47 and fig. 140; Ch. Picard in REL XXX, 1952, 336f; Becatti, Mitrei Ostia, 32ff and Pls IV, 1-2, XXVII-XXX; see fig. 69 kindly placed at my disposal by Dr. G. Becatti.
A very exceptional representation of Mithras as a bullkiller. The young god, only clad in a short tunica, which covers half of his chest, grasps the bull with his l.h. underneath his mouth and triumphantly raises the r.h. with the dagger. He forces the animal down with his knees. The sheath of the dagger is fixed to his belt. The god raises his curly head with pathetic expression towards the sky. On the base crawls the snake. No scorpion. On the bull's chest an inscription No. 231.
Lost: part of the dagger; parts of the bull's forelegs and tail. Mithras' head and arms, the bull's head and parts of its knees and tail already in antiquity had been repaired in a greyish marble. Thus the Mithraists repaired and used an older statue, the date of which is the second century A.D.
231
L.H.0.01-O.015.
Κρίτων / ἈΘηναῖος / ἐποίει
Supplement (vol. 2, p.24)
The statue of Kritoon was placed on a base in three quarter view and under one of the funnels for the light to fall on the head of Mithras. Margarete Bieber in AJA 60, 1956, 31l f. is inclined to believe that the statue was originally not meant for Mithras at all, but that the group represents a taurobolium in honour of the Magna Mater. When it was used again, parts of the bull had to be repaired. "I believe that at that time the upper part of the head of the youth was cut off in order to fit it with a Phrygian cap, for which a dowel hole was bored (Becatti, Pl. XXX)." J. Le Gall in RA (S.6) XLIX, 1957, 75 fig. 2 adds that the god certainly wore rays in gilt metal. This is possible (cf. No. 280-281) but not certain.
A copy of the very interesting group of Kritoon, existing in the Coll. Giustiniani and now in the Villa di Bassano in Sutri, is published by G. Becatti in BollArte 1957, 1ff. The group has been falsely restored as a gladiator killing a lion. Only Mithras' body except his head, his l.h. and part of his r. thigh are original. The measurements of this copy correspond exactly with those of the original at Ostia. See fig. 248 = Becatti, fig. 4.

From the Ostia Antica site.

Behind the podia a statue of Mithras about to kill the bull was found in situ, resting on a masonry base placed diagonally (h. 0.30). The head of the god was illuminated in a dramatic way through a skylight. The height of the statue is 1.70. It is made of Greek marble. The blade of the knife is missing. It was probably made of metal. The Phrygian cap was made separately and is also missing, as are the metal rays that were fastened in holes. The head of the bull and the head and an arm of Mithras were found in a channel in the mithraeum, together with small fragments of the statue, that are ancient restorations. The statue stands upon a base of grey marble (resting on the masonry base), the same kind of marble used for the restorations. Obviously a damaged statue had been acquired. The fragments must have been thrown in the channel by Christians, who erected a small edifice above the mithraeum.

From the Stanford University site:

On February 5, 1999, the J. Paul Getty Museum returned three artifacts to Italy: ... The torso of a second-century AD statue of the god Mithra (82.AA.74). This piece was bought from an unnamed European dealer. It was discovered to be part of a statue that had been stolen from the Italian Giustiniani Collection. It seems that after the theft the statue had been broken up for sale (Lee 1999).
Lee, D. 1999. "Getty returns three stolen works", Art Newspaper no. 90, 1, 3.