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. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “tauroctony” is a great word
TAUROCTONY — [Noun] The central cult image of Mithraism, a sculptural relief depicting the god Mithras slaying a bull. Its name is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ταυροκτόνος (tauroktónos), from ταῦρος (taûros, "bull") + κτόνος (któnos, "killing"). Unlike "sacrifice," a general ritual offering, or a "mithraeum," the subterranean temple that housed it, a tauroctony is the specific, frozen icon. It is the god's knee pressed into the bull's flank, the dagger poised at its throat, and the scorpion clutching its genitals—a sacred still of slaughter, repeated a thousand times in the empire's dusk, a cosmic diagram in stone whispering of forgotten salvation.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ταυροκτόνος (tauroktónos), from ταῦρος (taûros, “bull”) + κτόνος (któnos, “killing”).
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.“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 figure of a lion in the tauroctony.”