Cautes and Cautopates

Cautes and Cautopates are torch-bearers depicted attending the god Mithras in the icons of the ancient Roman cult of Mithraism, known as Tauroctony.

So attendants Cautes and Cautopates are supposed to represent the stations of sunrise and sunset respectively, or perhaps the spring and autumn equinoxes, or equivalently the ascending (spring) and descending (autumnal) nodes of the Sun's apparent path on the celestial sphere.

The two torch-bearers are often interpreted as symbols of light, one for the rising, the other for the setting sun.

Thus, represented on the left and right of the Tauroctony, they become a realistic cadre of the celestial equator and the constellations included between the two equinoxes during the Age of Taurus.

[5] M. J. Vermasaren[6] shows Mithras, the unconquerable sun, and his two torch-bearers, Cautes, sunrise, and Cautopates, sunset, equally sized in a 3-branch pine tree, visible at Dieburg, Germany.

Cautes from a group of Mithras figures in the Museo Archeologico Regionale , Palermo , 3rd century AD
Banquet scene on the Fiano Romano Mithraic relief. At bottom are Cautes (l) and Cautopates (r) .