That’s A Whole Lot of Bull!

There’s a whole lot of bull that features in the mythologies and other stories from our ancient history. Here are a few examples.

You have lots of bulls featured in cave art painted during the ancient Paleolithic in Western Europe.

Gods often take the form of bulls since bulls are symbols of virility and power.

Zeus shape-shifted into a snow-white bull and in that form abducted Europa to the island of Crete. There he had his wicked way with her, she giving birth to, among a couple of others, Minos who became King of Crete.

The wife of Minos, Pasiphae, was enamored with and into mating with a bull conjured up by the sea god Poseidon, hence giving birth to the Minotaur.

The Minotaur was a half-bull and half-human monster who inhabited the labyrinth and who was fed tributes in the form of human youths and maidens. However, one such tribute, Theseus, assisted by Ariadne – daughter of Minos – slew the Minotaur. Alas, there is no happy ever after endings to what happened next.

Of the twelve labors of Hercules, the seventh was to capture the Cretan Bull.

Bull-leaping was a ‘sport’ or a form of gymnastics in ancient Crete.

You have enormous statues of winged bulls with bearded human heads and five legs in ancient Assyria. Someone was smoking the good stuff when coming up with that combination!

The Bull of Heaven in Mesopotamian mythology was owned by the god Anu (An).

A bull features in the Gilgamesh epic, one sent by the goddess Ishtar (Inanna) to kill Gilgamesh – a woman (and a goddess no less) scorned sort of scenario.

The White Bull was the first animal of creation in Iranian mythology.

The ancient Egyptians had their sacred Apis Bull.

The Hindu deity Shiva often is featured with a bull for a companion.

There’s the great Brown Bull of Cooley in Celtic / Irish Mythology as featured in the “Tain Bo Cuailnge”.

Even in modern times you have bull-riding in rodeos and of course bull fights (I always root for the bull) as well as the running of the bulls.