An artistic depiction of the mythic hero and ancient religious savior Mithras engaged in the ritual slaying of a bull.

The literal act of sacrifice is known as taurobolium.

Mithras is identified as a Persian god in the Zoroastrian tradition and Persian mythology. He was the god of light, truth, and goodness. He is often shown with a bull, which he is said to have slain before fertilizing the world with its blood.

Mithras was the nominal object of devotion in a Greco-Roman mystery religion of late antiquity. Mithras is the development of Greco-Roman syncretic beliefs (union, or attempted fusion, of different systems of thoughts or beliefs; especially, in religion or philosophy), and the name simply reflects the high regard that the Greeks held for the figure of Zoroaster.