Symbolism of the Bull in Minoan Art

Surely all attempts to comprehend the symbolism of the bull in Minoan art must begin from, or at least remain cognizant of, the fresco of the ôbull dancersö found in the palace at Knossos. Greek myth, conveniently summarized in PlutarchÆs Life of Theseus, served to preserve a memory of this complex palace; its name or description as labyrinthos, which came to mean a maze, had apparently meant the ôhouse of the double ax.ö

The myths also portrayed the king of Crete, Minos, as a son of Europa, a princess of Phoenicia, who rode on the back of Zeus in the form of a bull to Crete, where he seduced her and fathered Minos and his brothers. The Athenians remembered Minos as a tyrant who exacted a tribute of a dozen each of youths and maidens annually (or every seven or nine years, according to other versions of the myth), and who sacrificed them to the ôMinotaur,ö a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.

The myth related that Minos had prayed to Poseidon to send him a bull worthy of sacrifice; but when the requested bull rose from the sea, it was so beautiful that Minos instead sacrificed another bull. Enraged, Poseidon cast a spell upon Queen Pasiphae causing her to fall in love with the bull. Pasiphae confided her passion to Dae

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these would be two scenes in the same overall scenario. Castleden argues that the palace at Knossos is perhaps best understood as being not a secular administrative and apartment building, but instead a temple dedicated entirely to the worship of Poteidan, especially as embodied in the form of his sacred animal, the bull. This interpretation would provide a more plausible reason why the palace was liberally adorned with the stylized sacral horns of the bull, as well as with the ritual double axes, or labryses, that apparently gave it its name. These axes were also associated with the bull; sometimes the axes were mounted upright on their handles not in a plain holder, but actually in a sculpted bullÆs head. It has been speculated that the labrys may have been the ritual weapon used to sacrifice bulls to Poteidan. If the bull was believed to be an incarnation of Poteidan, then the ôbull dancingö takes on a new meaning: the ritual of leaping over or dancing upon the back of the bull was not mere entertainment. In this sense, it was certainly not comparable to the Spanish bullfight (even if the latter was somehow derived from Minoan tradition) or to the Roman gladiatorial arena. Instead, the ôbull dancingö was a type of litu
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Poteidan Castleden, Arthur Evans, Europa Zeus--but, Minotaur Minos, University Press, Crete Minos, Robert Graves, Minotaur Athenians, York Abrams, Queen Pasiphae, minoan art, palace knossos, symbolism bull, minoan culture, mary renault, human sacrifice, triple god, bronze age, ôbull dancingö, horns bull, alexander knossos searching, searching legendary palace, knossos searching legendary, york scribnerÆs 1979, palace king minos,
Approximate Word count = 2450
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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