Ancient Greek fact of the day: the Beastie!

Ancient Greek fact of the day: the Beastie!

•

The bull was an important symbol for the Bronze Age Minoans, as it was for early Mycenaean culture in Ancient Greece. The bull also emulates the Minotaur in Greek myth and man’s ability to command this fearsome creature. The bulls in Minoan culture were the now extinct Aurochs! The Aurochs were large and formidable bulls and a force to be reckoned with in the mythical culture of the ancient world.

•

The Minoan culture flourished on the island of Crete where in Greek myth king Minos lived with his wife Pasiphae. Minos was a scrupulous king who wanted divine acknowledgement and favour from Poseidon, god of the sea. Poseidon obliged, sending a beautiful white bull thinking this would be sacrificed in his honour. But Minos was so enamoured with the creature that he hid it in a field and sacrificed another bull instead. Poseidon full of rage cursed Pasiphae with an insatiable sexual appetite for the white bull. Using the skill of the craftsman Daedalus who built her a bull like contraption so that she could mate with the creature, she becomes impregnated by the bull and gives birth to the hybrid creature - the Minotaur. The creature was grotesque but Minos feared killing it in case he incurred Poseidon’s wrath further so he encased it in a labyrinth and fed it human flesh until the Greek hero Theseus overpowers it....This myth forms the backbone of Minoan culture and it is thought that the bull leaping which was so prevalent in their culture represented some form of command over the wild beast, just as the Athenian hero Theseus shows command over the Minotaur in the story when he eventually kills it.