Bull (mythology)

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Minoan Bull ( Heraklion Archaeological Museum )

The bull in European mythology is relevant in two ways. On the one hand, it stands for fertility and thus as a sign of fertility. On the other hand, for the all-powerful power of the turning movement of the sky.

distribution

Crete

The Cretan- Minoan bull cult can be seen in the union of both characteristics . There the bull appears in connection with the double ax . The double ax in turn is a symbol of the sun-moon movements in the sky. If, for example, a vessel in the shape of a bull's head was found in the Mycenaean shaft grave, with a double ax protruding from the sun-decorated skull between the horns, this is understood as a parable for the celestial bull , which is fused with the axis of the world and pulls the celestial yoke around it in a stoic circling course .

Sculpture by Paul Mersmann on Berlin's Alboinplatz based on a legend about the Germanic death goddess Hel

Central Germany

Burials of pairs of cattle have been found since the Neolithic spherical amphora culture or the Havelland culture . This is probably related to the beginning of their use as a draft animal. The cattle engravings on the Züschen and Warburg stone chamber graves of the Wartberg group fall within the same horizon .

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In particular, the depictions of cattle in the Warburg stone chamber grave, as well as signs relevant to the time, reveal the astronomical and calendar backgrounds of the cult of the dead .

After all, jewelry in the form of double axes is also widespread in the aforementioned Neolithic cultures of today's Central European area. However, it is unclear whether the Neolithic cult tradition beyond the Alps can be compared with the Mediterranean, Bronze Age levels of development or vice versa. The high quality of the Cretan-Minoan cultural evidence does not necessarily have to go hand in hand with previously developed or spiritually more highly developed ideas of cult or heaven.

Middle East

A mythological celestial bull also occurs in the Middle East and ancient Greece - especially as a tool of the gods. In Iranian mythology, the earth is carried by a bull. In the Gilgamesh epic, the love goddess Ishtar, spurned by the Sumerian hero-king, sends the bull to kill Gilgamesh, but he is defeated by him. In the ancient Greek legend of Heracles , the hero succeeds in taming the bull.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herrmann Behrens , The Neolithic-Early Metal Age Animal Skeleton Finds of the Old World. Studies on their interpretation of nature and historical problems. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory, Hall 19, 1964
  2. ↑ The Hakim of Nischapur Omar Chajjám and his Rubaijat , based on old and recent Persian manuscript finds by Manuel Sommer, Pressler, Wiesbaden 1974, pp. 42 and 146