tauroctony
tauroctony noun: a depiction (typically in relief or sculpture) of Mithras killing a bull; associated with the practice of Mithraism (as a cult) in the Roman Empire.
Noun
tauroctony (plural tauroctonies)
- A depiction (typically in relief or sculpture) of Mithras killing a bull; associated with the practice of Mithraism (as a cult) in the Roman Empire.
- In any event, if, as I am arguing, the tauroctony represents the astronomical situation which obtained during the epoch in which the spring equinox was in Taurus, the fact that the summer solstice was in Leo during that epoch provides a convincing explanation for the occasional presence of the...1991, David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, Oxford University Press, page 54
- The central icon, ever present in Mithras temples throughout the Roman Empire, is the tauroctony, or bull-slaying.2005, Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras, Inner Traditions, page 20
Forms of tauroctony
| plural | tauroctonies |
|---|
Origin of tauroctony
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ταυροκτόνος (tauroktónos), from ταῦρος (taûros, “bull”) + κτόνος (któnos, “killing”).
Questions about tauroctony
- What does tauroctony mean?
- Tauroctony means a depiction (typically in relief or sculpture) of Mithras killing a bull; associated with the practice of Mithraism (as a cult) in the Roman Empire.
- What part of speech is tauroctony?
- Tauroctony is a noun.
- What is the plural of tauroctony?
- The plural of tauroctony is tauroctonies.
Words near tauroctony in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tauroctony (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “tauroctony.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tauroctony. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.