The gate of the year

Figure above:

Terracotta rhyton, a container used for pouring liquids as a libation offered to the gods, in the shape of a bull’s head, from a burial in the island of Karpathos and dating to the Mycenaean period (1300-1200 B.C.), now in the British Museum, London. Since the Minoan period (from 3000 to 1500 B.C.), in Crete the bull was one of the most important symbols, frequently reproduced in art and architecture. The animal represented probably the sexual and generative power: the horns of the bull were indeed present in many places in the Palace of Cnossos, the main centre of Minoan civilization. Thus, it is no coincidence if in Greek mythology the various bull figures often bring back to the Island of Crete: in effect, the bull, into which Zeus transformed himself to abduct Europa, carries the girl through the sea reaching Crete, where she gave birth to Minos, the future king of the island. The wife of the latter, Pasiphaë, daughter of the Sun, fell in love with a handsome white bull which her husband had received as a gift from Poseidon, the god of the sea. She begot with the bull a child, the Minotaur, an hybrid being with human body and a bull’s head. The same Cretan bull shall be captured by Heracles during one of his twelve feats. The fight of the hero against the bull, or against a bull-man, is a mythological motif which can be traced back to a remote antiquity and is found already in Mesopotamian civilizations. Moreover, the sacrifice of a bull was the most acceptable for the divinities and in the Iliad (II, 402 ff.) is described in detail a bull sacrifice celebrated by Agamemnon, “the prince of all the Achaeans”. One of the summer festivals in Athens was the Buphonia, a sacrificial slaughtering of an ox.

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bull-rhyton_BM_A971.jpg]

Figure below:

Terracotta rhyton (container for libations) in the shape of a cow’s head, dating to about 460 B.C. and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In all the Mediterranean basin the cow is frequently associated with female divinities, often related to the moon, symbolizing the fertility and nourishment offered by the mother earth. In mythology, the cow is associated primarily with the goddess Hera, Zeus’s wife, who is called by Homer “the goddess with bovine eyes” (for ex.: Iliad, IV, 50). Some scholars have interpreted such an epithet as a simple reference to the great eyes of the goddess, but it could suggest as well a stricter link between Hera and the animal.

[Source: http://marinni.dreamwidth.org/427093.html]




Animals

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Figure above: Terracotta rhyton, a container used for pouring liquids as a libation offered to the gods, in the shape of a bull’s head, from a burial in the island of Karpathos and dating to the Mycenaean period (1300-1200 B.C.), now in the British Museum, London. Since the Minoan period (from 3000 to 1500 B.C.), in Crete the bull was one of the most important symbols, frequently reproduced in art and architecture. The animal represented probably the sexual and generative power: the horns of the bull were indeed present in many places in the Palace of Cnossos, the main centre of Minoan civilization. Thus, it is no coincidence if in Greek mythology the various bull figures often bring back to the Island of Crete: in effect, the bull, into which Zeus transformed himself to abduct Europa, carries the girl through the sea reaching Crete, where she gave birth to Minos, the future king of the island. The wife of the latter, Pasiphaë, daughter of the Sun, fell in love with a handsome white bull which her husband had received as a gift from Poseidon, the god of the sea. She begot with the bull a child, the Minotaur, an hybrid being with human body and a bull’s head. The same Cretan bull shall be captured by Heracles during one of his twelve feats. The fight of the hero against the bull, or against a bull-man, is a mythological motif which can be traced back to a remote antiquity and is found already in Mesopotamian civilizations. Moreover, the sacrifice of a bull was the most acceptable for the divinities and in the Iliad (II, 402 ff.) is described in detail a bull sacrifice celebrated by Agamemnon, “the prince of all the Achaeans”. One of the summer festivals in Athens was the Buphonia, a sacrificial slaughtering of an ox. [Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bull-rhyton_BM_A971.jpg] Figure below: Terracotta rhyton (container for libations) in the shape of a cow’s head, dating to about 460 B.C. and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In all the Mediterranean basin the cow is frequently associated with female divinities, often related to the moon, symbolizing the fertility and nourishment offered by the mother earth. In mythology, the cow is associated primarily with the goddess Hera, Zeus’s wife, who is called by Homer “the goddess with bovine eyes” (for ex.: Iliad, IV, 50). Some scholars have interpreted such an epithet as a simple reference to the great eyes of the goddess, but it could suggest as well a stricter link between Hera and the animal. [Source: http://marinni.dreamwidth.org/427093.html]