“So Long, Marianne” – the Meaning of Mithras Farm
by Quilla Communications
I’m a French-American artist who discovered the mysteries of Mithraism while living across the river from a Mithraeum in Koenigshoffen, part of Alsace in Northeastern France. The Roman Mithraic cult left underground sites throughout Europe that featured the tauroctony, the slaying of the bull by Mithra or Mithras, depending on who you think the character is.
Mithra was the Zoroastrian protector of cattle, so the bull killing is, to me, the greatest mystery, one whose meaning has changed over time. The tauroctony, depicted in statues, paintings and reliefs, repeatedly shows the difficult themes of sacrifice, betrayal, rebirth and transformation.
In “So Long, Mariannne” the tauroctony features the French Marianne, who wears two hats as a freedom fighter – one is the red phrygian cap that protected Strasbourg’s Notre Dame cathedral during a revolutionary period of destruction. The other is the Sol Invictus crown shared with the Statue of Liberty, whose creator (F. Auguste Bartholdi) hails from Alsace. Sol Invictus is usually portrayed in the tauroctony as overseeing the sacrifice of the bull. Mithras looks for approval from the wearer of the 7-pointed crown, but I’ve come to realize that he and Sol Invictus are one in the same.
“So Long, Marianne,” depicts Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty slaying Arturo DiModica’s charging bull, the golden calf of Wall Street poured from the world’s melting pot. We continue to relive the same struggles and often feel torn between our need for compliance and acceptance versus what we determine to be our values. Repeating these challenges time and time again throughout history, whether in dark caves or city streets, help us learn who we really are.
I still don’t really know what the picture means, but I hope to figure it out.
This work represents how Mithras Farm grows digital art for free thinkers across dimensions.
– Quilla Communications, February 16, 2022
Mithras Farm is a project of Quilla Communications, Strasbourg/France and Minneapolis/USA.
