Editing Mithraism (section)

===Banquet===
The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.<ref name=Beck-2004-InPlcLion/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 286–287}} The banquet scene features Mithras and Sol Invictus banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull.<ref name=Beck-2004-InPlcLion/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 286–287}} On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a [[caduceus]] towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a [[psychopomp]], the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter.<ref name="Beck_2006_27_28"/> Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: The blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.<ref name="Beck_2006_27_28">{{cite book |last=Beck |first=Roger |year=2007 |title=The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire |place=London, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-921613-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/religionmithrasc00beck_853/page/n43 27]-28 |url=https://archive.org/details/religionmithrasc00beck_853 |url-access=limited}}</ref>