Bull heads excavated from Çatalhöyük in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.

The worship of the Sacred Bull was widespread in the ancient world. It is perhaps most familiar to the Western world in the Biblical episode wherein an idol of the Golden Calf is made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus). Young bulls were set as frontier markers at Tel Dan and at Bethel the frontiers of the Kingdom of Israel. In other cultures, Marduk is the "bull of Utu" and the Hindu God Shiva's steed is Nandi, the Bull. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1360, 694 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Çatalhöyük Bull (mythology) Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1360, 694 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Çatalhöyük Bull (mythology) Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or... Excavations at the South Area of Çatal Höyük Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without diacritics; çatal is Turkish for fork, höyük for mound) was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern... Anatolian Civilizations Museum of Ankara, has been elected as the European Museum of the Year in 1997. ... Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the countrys second largest city after Ä°stanbul. ... The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning books, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the sacred scripture of Christianity. ... Adoration of the Golden Calf by Nicolas Poussin: imagery influenced by the Greco-Roman bacchanal In the Hebrew Bible the golden calf was an idol made by Aaron for the Israelites during Mosess unexpectedly long absence. ... Aaron (אַהֲרֹן, a word meaning bearer of martyrs in Hebrew [perhaps also, or instead, related to the Egyptian Aha Ra, Warrior Lion], Standard Hebrew (w/o vowels) AHRvN, Tiberian Hebrew (), was one of two brothers who play a unique part in the history of the Hebrew people. ... It has been suggested that Pharaoh of the Exodus be merged into this article or section. ... Tel Dan is an area in upper Galilee in Northern Israel; fed by melt water from the snows of mount Hermon, it is well watered by streams and covered with lush vegetation that seems out of place amidst its arid surroundings. ... Bethel (בית אל), also written as Beth El or Beth-El, is a Semitic word that has acquired various meanings. ... Commonwealth of Israel redirects here. ... Marduk (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: AMAR.UTU solar calf; Biblical: Merodach) was the Babylonian name of a late generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century... In Sumerian mythology, Utu is the offspring of Nanna and Ningal and is the god of the sun and of justice. ... Nilakantha redirects here. ... An idol of Nandi in a Chennai temple The largest idol of Nandi is at the Dodda Ganeshana Gudi, Bangalore. ...

Aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European cave paintings such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. Their life force may have been thought to have magical qualities, for early carvings of the aurochs have also been found. The impressive and dangerous aurochs survived into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East and was worshiped throughout that area as a sacred animal. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh depicts the killing of the Bull of Heaven, Gugalana, husband of Ereshkigal, as an act of defiance of the gods. Trinomial name Bos primigenius primigenius (Bojanus, 1827) Bos primigenius namadicus (Falconer, 1859) Bos primigenius mauretanicus (Thomas, 1881) See Ur (rune) for the rune. ... Lascaux Lascaux is a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. ... Iron Age Axe found on Gotland This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age, for the mythological Iron Age see Iron Age (mythology). ... Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Babylonia and is among the earliest known literary works. ... Gugalana, the Sumerian Great Bull of Heaven, a reference to the constellation Taurus, (from Sumerian Gu=Bull, Gal=Great, Ana,An,Anu=Heaven, Sky). ... Introduction In Sumerian and Akkadian (Babylonian and Assyrian) mythology, Ereshkigal, wife of Nergal, was the goddess of Irkalla, the land of the dead. ...

From the earliest times, the bull was lunar in Mesopotamia (its horns representing the crescent moon), though we cannot recreate a specific context for the bull skulls with horns (bucrania) preserved in an 8th millennium BCE sanctuary at Çatalhöyük in eastern Anatolia. The sacred bull of the Hattians, whose elaborate standards were found at Alaca Höyük alongside those of the sacred stag, survived in the Hurrian and Hittite mythologies as Seri and Hurri ('Day' and 'Night') — the bulls who carried the weather god Teshub on their backs or in his chariot, and who grazed on the ruins of cities.^[1] In Cyprus, bull masks made from real skulls were worn in rites. Bull-masked terracotta figurines^[2] and Neolithic bull-horned stone altars have been found in Cyprus. Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran. ... Bucranium (plural bucrania) is the Latin word for the skull of an ox. ... Excavations at the South Area of Çatal Höyük Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without diacritics; çatal is Turkish for fork, höyük for mound) was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern... The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in Asia Minor in the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC. They spoke a non-Indo-European language of uncertain affiliation called Hattic (now believed by some to be related to the Northwest Caucasian language group). ... Deer have significant roles in the mythology of various peoples. ... The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia and areas to the immediate east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC. They probably originated in the Caucasus and entered from the north, but this is not certain. ... Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire The Hittites were an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URU) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was... Teshub was the Hurrian god of sky and storm. ...

In Egypt, the bull was worshiped as Apis, the embodiment of Ptah and later of Osiris. A long series of ritually perfect bulls were identified by the god's priests, housed in the temple for their lifetime, then embalmed and encased in a giant sarcophagus. A long sequence of monolithic stone sarcophagi were housed in the Serapeum, and were rediscovered by Auguste Mariette at Saqqara in 1851. The bull was also worshipped as Mnewer, the embodiment of Atum-Ra, in Heliopolis. Ka in Egyptian is both a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull. Apis can refer to the following: Apis — An Egyptian god Apis — A Bee genus Apis — In Greek mythology a prophet. ... Ptah In Egyptian mythology, Ptah (also spelt Peteh) was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen (also spelt Tathenen), meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land. ... For other uses, see Osiris (disambiguation). ... Stone sarcophagus of Pharaoh Merenptah Detail of a stone sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archeological Museum showing a hunting scene Anthropoid sarcophagus discovered at Cádiz A sarcophagus is a stone container for a coffin or body. ... The Serapeum of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt was a temple built by Ptolemy III (reigned 246–222 BC) and dedicated to Serapis, the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god who was made the protector of Alexandria. ... A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. ... Saqqara (Arabic: سقارة) is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, featuring the worlds oldest standing step pyramid. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... In Egyptian mythology, Mnewer was a black bull in Heliopolis, worshipped as a symbol of fertility and as an oracle. ... Heliopolis (Greek: or ), was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome. ...

Walter Burkert summarized modern revision of a too-facile and blurred identification of a god that was identical to his sacrificial victim, which had created suggestive analogies with the Christian Eucharist for an earlier generation of mythographers:

The concept of the theriomorphic god and especially of the bull god, however, may all too easily efface the very important distinctions between a god named, described, represented, and worshipped in animal form, a real animal worshipped as a god, animal symbols and animal maskes used in the cult, and finally the consecrated animal destined for sacrifice. Animal worship of the kind found in the Egyptian Apis cult is unknown in Greece. ("Greek Religion," 1985).

When the heroes of the new Indo-European culture arrived in the Aegean basin, they faced off with the ancient Sacred Bull on many occasions, and always overcame it, in the form of the myths that have survived. For the Greeks, the bull was strongly linked to the Bull of Crete: Theseus of Athens had to capture the ancient sacred bull of Marathon (the "Marathonian bull") before he faced the Bull-man, the Minotaur (Greek for "Bull of Minos"), whom the Greeks imagined as a man with the head of a bull at the center of the labyrinth. Earlier Minoan frescos and ceramics depict bull-leaping rituals in which participants of both sexes vaulted over bulls by grasping their horns. Yet Walter Burkert's constant warning is, "It is hazardous to project Greek tradition directly into the Bronze age";^[3] only one Minoan image of a bull-headed man has been found, a tiny seal currently held in the Archaeological Museum of Chania. The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age. ... Heracles capturing the Cretan Bull. ... Theseus (Greek ) was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night. ... Marathon (Demotic Greek: Μαραθώνας, Marathónas; Attic/ Katharevousa: Μαραθών, Marathón) is a town in Greece, the site of the battle of Marathon in 490 BC, in which the Athenian army defeated the Persians. ... Bull mask at the Greek pavilion at Expo 88 In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (Greek: Μινόταυρος, Minótauros) was a creature that was part man and part bull. ... A Roman mosaic picturing Theseus and the Minotaur. ... The Minoans (Greek: Μυκηναίοι; Μινωίτες) were a pre-Hellenic Bronze Age civilization in Crete in the Aegean Sea, flourishing from approximately 2700 to 1450 BC when their culture was superseded by the Mycenaean culture, which drew upon the Minoans. ... Fresco by Dionisius representing Saint Nicholas. ... Fixed Partial Denture, or Bridge The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramikos). ... Bull-leaping, fresco from the Great Palace at Knossos, Crete The Bull Leaper, an ivory figurine from the palace of knossos, crete. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... // Look up seal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Chania (IPA , Greek: Χανιά, also transliterated as Hania, older form Chanea and Venetian: Canea, Godart and Olivier abbreviation: KH) is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania Prefecture. ...

In the Olympian cult, Hera's epithet Bo-opis is usually translated "ox-eyed" Hera, but the term could just as well apply if the goddess had the head of a cow, and thus the epithet reveals the presence of an earlier, though not necessarily more primitive, iconic view. Classical Greeks never otherwise referred to Hera simply as the cow, though her priestess Io was so literally a heifer that she was stung by a gadfly, and it was in the form of a heifer that Zeus coupled with her. Zeus took over the earlier roles, and, in the form of a bull that came forth from the sea, abducted the high-born Phoenician Europa and brought her, significantly, to Crete. The twelve gods of Olympus. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera (IPA pronunciation: ; Greek or ) was the wife and older sister of Zeus. ... An epithet (Greek - επιθετον and Latin - epitheton; literally meaning imposed) is a descriptive word or phrase. ... Jupiter and Io, Renaissance masterwork by Antonio da Correggio. ... Europa and Zeus, on the Greek €2 coin A commemorative Italian euro coin depicts Europa holding a pen over the text of the Constitution of Europe. ...

Dionysus was another god of resurrection who was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is also invited to come as a bull, "with bull-foot raging." "Quite frequently he is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image," Walter Burkert relates, and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.^[4] Dionysus with a leopard, satyr and grapes on a vine, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) This article is about the ancient deity. ... Coordinates 37°38′ N 21°37′ E Country Greece Periphery West Greece Prefecture Elis Province Ilia Population 11,069 source (2001) Elevation 63 m Postal code 270 65 Area code 26240 Licence plate code ΗΑ Olympia (Greek: Olympía or Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a sanctuary of ancient Greece... Dionysus with a leopard, satyr and grapes on a vine, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) This article is about the ancient deity. ... Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Asia Minor, situated on the shoreward side of the present peninsula of Kapu-Dagh (Arctonnesus), which is said to have been originally an island in the Sea of Marmara, and to have been artificially connected with the mainland in historic times. ... Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ... Dionysus with a leopard, satyr and grapes on a vine, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) This article is about the ancient deity. ... In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek Τιτάν, plural Τιτάνες) were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. ...

In the Classical period of Greece, the bull and other animals identified with deities were separated as their agalma, a kind of heraldic show-piece that concretely signified their numinous presence.

Alexander the Great's famous horse was named Bucephalus ("ox-head"), linking the self-proclaimed god-king with the mythical power of the bull. Alexander the Great (Greek: ,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history. ... Statue of Alexander the Great riding Bucephalus, Thessaloniki, Greece For the branding mark anciently used on horses, see Bucephalus (brand). ...

The bull is one of the animals associated with the late Hellenistic and Roman syncretic cult of Mithras, in which the killing of the astral bull, the tauroctony, was as central in the cult as the Crucifixion was to contemporary Christians. The tauroctony was represented in every Mithraeum. An often-disputed suggestion connects remnants of Mithraic ritual to the survival or rise of bullfighting in Iberia and southern France, where the legend of Saint Saturninus (or Sernin) of Toulouse and his protegé in Pamplona, Saint Fermin, at least, are inseparably linked to bull-sacrifices by the vivid manner of their martryrdoms, set by Christian hagiography in the 3rd century CE, which was also the century in which Mithraism was most widely practiced. Syncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing, beliefs and to meld practices of various schools of thought. ... Mithras and the Bull: fresco from the mithraeum at Marino, Italy, (3rd century AD) Mithras was the central god of Mithraism, a syncretic Hellenistic mystery religion of male initiates that developed in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and was practiced in the Roman Empire from... A tauroctony was the depiction of Mithras ritually slaying a bull, that is a taurobolium. ... Crucifixion of St. ... Fourth-century inscription, representing Christ as the Good Shepherd. ... A tauroctony was the depiction of Mithras ritually slaying a bull, that is a taurobolium. ... A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy. ... Mithras and the Bull: This fresco from the mithraeum at Marino, Italy (3rd century) shows the tauroctony and the celestial lining of Mithras cape Mithraism was a mystery religion present in the Roman world. ... Bull ring (Plaza de Toros) La Malagueta in Málaga (Spain) Bullfighting or tauromachy (Spanish toreo, corrida de toros or tauromaquia; Portuguese tourada, corrida de touros or tauromaquia) is a tradition that involves, most of the time, professional performers (generally called in Spanish toreros or matadores and in Portuguese toureiros... Saint Saturnin (in Latin Saturninus, now Sernin in France and in Navarra Cernin), with a feast day entered for November 29, was one of the apostles to the Gauls sent out (probably under the direction of Pope Fabian, 236 - 250) during the consulate of Decius and Gratus (250-251 AD... Saint Fermin is one of many locally venerated Catholic saints. ... Hagiography is the study of saints. ...

Irish Gaelic myth features the tales of the epic hero Cuchulainn, which were collected in the 7th century CE "Book of the Dun Cow." Young Cúchulainn, 1912 illustration by Stephen Reid. ...

In some Christian religions, Nativity scenes are assembled at Christmas time. Most of them show a bull or an ox near baby Jesus, lying in a manger. Traditional songs of Christmas often tell of the bull and the donkey warming the infant with their breath. Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... A traditional nativity scene from Naples, Italy A nativity scene, also called a crib or crèche (meaning crib or manger in French) generally refers to any depiction of the birth or birthplace of Jesus. ... Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ...

The sacred bull survives in the constellation Taurus. For other uses of the word Taurus see Taurus. ...

Notes

1. ^ Hawkes and Woolley, 1963; Vieyra, 1955
2. ^ Burkert 1985
3. ^ Burkert 1985 p. 24
4. ^ Burkert 1985 pp. 64, 132

References

• Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, 1985
• Campbell, Joseph Occidental Mythology "2.The Consort of the Bull", 1964.
• Hawkes, Jacquetta; Woolley, Leonard: Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization, v. 1 (NY, Harper & Row, 1963)
• Vieyra, Maurice: Hittite Art, 2300-750 B.C. (London, A. Tiranti, 1955)

Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ... Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 31, 1987) was an American professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. ... Jacquetta Hawkes, née Hopkins, (August 5, 1910 – March 18, 1996) was a British archaeologist. ... Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880–20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist, best known for his excavations at Ur in Sumerancient Mesopotamia. ...

External links

• Anita Stratos, "Divine cults of the sacred bulls" A popularized summary of Egyptian bull cults.
• An exhibit on the tombs of Alaca Höyük at the Metropolitan Museum of Art includes one example of the bull standards.