The Bull Cult

The Bull Cult refers to the overall worship of bulls, it includes all cultures that hold the bull to be sacred for any reason.  From Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley, the bull has been recognized for many reasons.  (Rice pp 3-5)  Whether they are using the bull as transportation, food, or deifying the bull, many societies hold the bull sacred.  The animal represents power because if you can eliminate the bull, you have food and ultimate control of the cattle it led.  For this reason the bull begins to represent power in ancient civilizations.  So how does this symbol travel across the globe and remain a sacred symbol of fertility and power?  Could Jung’s “collective unconscious” have something to do with different cultures recognizing the same symbol?  Water is universal, a desire to eat is universal, is the bull something so deeply related to human psyche or basic need, that all humans understand the sacred nature of these animals?

First of all, the power of the bull cannot be denied, no matter who you are, the bull is larger than humans, and therefore more powerful.  So what makes something sacred? Is it the power that thing possesses (and therefore gives to its beholder) or is it something more metaphysical?  Could the bull be the embodiment of god?  Why not?  We have always searched for meaning in our everyday lives, and therefore is not anything we believe in a sacred experience?  For early civilizations the bull must have represented everything they needed to survive.  An animal large enough to carry everything they could think of that would allow them to migrate to vegetation.  The bull led its herd of cows, and when man could control their leader, they were able to control the herd.   This meant food and endless items could be made from the animal and its species.  However controlling the cattle was a death-defying act, the bull was ferocious and could destroy any human who tried to get close to the herd. 

     This is what made a hero or god out of anyone who could kill a bull.  Author Donald K. Sharpes actually relates man’s taming of the wild beast to the origin of Spanish bullfighting.  He discusses the act of killing the bull in way that makes it homage to the act of slaughtering the bull for beef, as was done centuries before the tradition.  I will continue that thought in a later post, for now let’s focus on this ultimate symbol and how it travels form culture to culture.  When you look at everything a bull provides for a civilization, it is safe to consider this animal sacred.  We get access to cattle, which bring us beef, leather for clothing and tools, transportation and oxen for farming.  Overall, you can thrive if you are able to domesticate an animal like the bull.  This is what makes the animal sacred, not to mention, as I have previously stated in my last post, the bull’s virility which makes it a symbol of fertility. 

     “Before Superman, Batman, Spider Man, when children’s comics became popular movies with special effects, there were Greek heroic myths, tales and adventures of larger-than-life heroes with divine or semi-divine ancestry whose powers were beyond ordinary human capacity.  Many myths were about bulls.”  (Sharpes, p.70)  This explains the myth of the bull very accurately.  This animal was popular, as popular as superman at one time.  The Greeks fascination with the bull would more than likely be coming from influence from the Cretes, or “Minoans” according to the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans.  I hope I don’t offend anyone by calling Sir Arthur Evans an archaeologist but for those of you who do not know, he is the man who is responsible for excavating and recreating most of what is now known as The Palace at Knossos.  This discovery showcases a society who is fascinated by the bull.  From bull-leaping frescos to the horns of consecration, much of this culture is based on the worship of the bull.

 The Minoans traded with everyone from Spain to Phoenicia, Greece, Italy, France, the Balaerics, North Africa and the early British Isles.  The Palace at Knossos is a testament to the beautiful architecture these people were making, and the minute details like the frescos and mosaics are such beautiful works of art that they have remained a large focus to artists to this day.  ( Conrad pp 113-126) The pottery they created was beautiful and functional, huge, small and everything you could ever dream of for a vessel.  They shipped and stored everything in their pottery, which means that even if it was decorated and made beautifully, it served a purpose first.  They either had a lot of time on their hands or a lot of pride in their work. 

According to Conrad the art of Minoa leads us to believe that they had a very extensive fertility religion;  the deities were a mother goddess of the earth and a father god of the sky.  (Conrad pp 114) There is much speculation over which god meant more or which god represented what, however the overall concept is that there were many cults that focused on both the male and the female aspects of life.  One thing that remains constant throughout is the emphasis on males being represented as bulls and the earth goddess favoring the bull as a sign of fertility.  We see on Minoan currency the images of bulls depicted as half man half bull or bulls relating to sunlight.  This leads us to believe that the presence of the bull as a deity was reminiscent of Egyptian pharaohs in the sense that it seems to be descending from the sun and omnipresent.  A supreme god, if you will.  

     The Minoans have passed their beliefs onto generations of cultures, including the Greeks, who passed this onto the Romans who passed it on to Spain.  This animal's legacy lives on to this day, and because of it we have many great products like RED BULL and basketball team.  Humor aside, the symbol of the bull lives on even in these products, they are an energy drink and a competitive sports team.  Both of which utilize the symbol of the bull to give the impression that they are forces to be reckoned with, full of virility and brute force.