Sacred bull
The bull as a sacred symbol across cultures and eras.
The sacred bull appears in the mythologies and religious practices of numerous cultures worldwide. In Sumerian religion, Marduk is called the 'bull of Utu', while in Hinduism the bull Nandi serves as Shiva's steed. The bull's significance endures in the constellation Taurus and in various modern New Age contexts.
Quick Facts
- Earliest bull worship site
- Neolithic Çatalhöyük
- First recorded lamassu motif
- Ebla around 3000 BCE
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Associated deities
- Adad
- Hadad
- Iškur
- Zeus
- Jupiter
- Teshub
- Amun
Facts from the source article.
In prehistoric art
European Paleolithic cave paintings, such as those at Lascaux and Livernon in France, depict aurochs. Early carvings of the aurochs have also been found, suggesting their life force was thought to have magical qualities. The aurochs survived into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East, where they were worshipped as sacred animals; the earliest remnants of bull worship appear at Neolithic Çatalhöyük.
In antiquity
The Sumerian guardian deity lamassu was depicted as a hybrid with the body of a winged bull or lion and the head of a human male. This motif of a winged animal with a human head first appeared in Ebla around 3000 BCE, and the distinct lamassu motif emerged in Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser II as a symbol of power. These human-headed winged bulls, also called shedu, were placed as guardians at city and palace gates, combining man, bull, and bird for protection. The bull was also the symbolic animal of the storm and rain god Adad, Hadad, or Iškur, who was depicted bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt, and wearing a bull-horned headdress. Hadad was equated with Zeus, Jupiter, Teshub, and Amun. In one litany, Iškur is proclaimed as 'great radiant bull, your name is heaven' and called son of Anu, lord of Karkara, twin-brother of Enki, and lord who rides the storm. The Epic of Gilgamesh describes the Bull of Heaven, deployed by Ishtar in rage, and its slaughter by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Medieval and modern and other uses
Bullfighting in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France is connected with the legends of Saturnin of Toulouse and his protégé Fermin of Pamplona, linked to bull-sacrifices through the manner of their martyrdoms as set by Christian hagiography in the third century. In some Christian traditions, Nativity scenes include a bull or ox near the baby Jesus, referencing Isaiah 1:3: 'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib.' Oxen are sacrificed by Greek Orthodox believers in some Greek villages, especially for the feast of Saint Charalambos; this practice, called kourbania, has been repeatedly criticized by church authorities. The ox is the symbol of Luke the Evangelist. Among the Visigoths, oxen pulling the wagon with the corpse of Saint Emilian led to the correct burial site at San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja. Taurus, the bull constellation, is one of the oldest constellations, dating to the Early Bronze Age when it marked the Sun's location during the spring equinox, influencing bull figures in the mythologies of Ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In John Matthews' 2016 book 'Robin Hood: Green Lord of the Wildwood', the awarding of a white bull as a prize in a ballad is interpreted as harking back to an ancient offering to the gods; the Bull-running at Tutbury, mentioned in another Robin Hood ballad, may have had similar significance.
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