Cretan Bull

Origin

The earliest literary reference is Bacchylides' Dithyramb 17 (fifth century BCE), which sings of Theseus' Marathonian bull. The canonical account is divided between two parts of pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca (first to second century CE): Book II.5.7 narrates Heracles' seventh labour, in which the hero crosses to Crete by Eurystheus' order, subdues the bull bare-handed, and ferries it across the sea to Mycenae; the Epitome I.5 carries the bull to the plain of Marathon, where Theseus catches it and sacrifices it at Athens. Diodorus Siculus IV.13.4, Ovid's Metamorphoses IX.186, Hyginus' Fabulae 30, 38, 40, Plutarch's Theseus 14, and Pausanias' Description of Greece I.27.10 fill out the legend. Minos' broken oath and Pasiphae's resulting passion are set out most clearly in pseudo-Apollodorus III.1.3-4.

Features

• A vast snow-white sacred bull
• Sent by Poseidon to King Minos as a sign of royal legitimacy
• Variants give it fiery breath and a maddened rage
• Father of the Minotaur, by union with Queen Pasiphae
• Target of Heracles' seventh labour
• Identified with the Marathonian Bull caught by Theseus

Stories

The Cretan Bull is among the most frequently depicted of Heracles' labours in Greek art: black-figure and red-figure vases from the sixth century BCE, the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (c. 460 BCE), and Pompeian wall paintings all show the hero subduing the bull. In astronomy, the constellation Taurus, the second sign of the zodiac, is among the oldest recorded constellations: Mesopotamian astronomical tablets attest it from the third millennium BCE, and Ptolemy listed it in the Almagest among the 48 classical constellations, retained in the modern IAU 88. The constellation is often identified with the white bull of Zeus's abduction of Europa, but later mythographers also identify it with the Cretan Bull. Sixteenth-century engravings by Cornelis Bos and the seventeenth-century Heracles cycle by Francisco de Zurbaran fixed the seventh labour in early modern European art, and Disney's Hercules (1997) and the Dungeons and Dragons monster manuals keep the figure modern.

Weakness

The Cretan Bull's decisive weakness is the hero's body itself. According to pseudo-Apollodorus Bibliotheca II.5.7, Heracles catches the bull without bow or weapon, subdues it with bare hands by riding its back, and swims with it across the sea to Mycenae. Theseus too, in Plutarch's Theseus 14, subdues the Marathonian bull with bare hands and a simple rope, leading it to the Athenian temple as a sacrifice. Both heroes' refusal of weapons in favour of bodily strength is the moral core of the myth: even a sacred beast yields to the will of the just hero, the classical Greek hero-test pattern at its purest. Built into the legend, moreover, is the theological mechanism of Minos' broken oath and Poseidon's punishment, which determines the bull's fate from the very beginning.

Cultural Significance

The Cretan Bull is not merely a mythic beast but a rare doubly-honoured creature, appearing in the labours of Heracles and the exploits of Theseus alike. The theological causal chain — Minos' broken oath, Poseidon's anger, Pasiphae's lust, the birth of the Minotaur — is one of the most polished tragic structures of Greek myth, leading on to the Minotaur cycle and Daedalus' Labyrinth. The constellation Taurus, attested on Mesopotamian astronomical tablets from the third millennium BCE, has long been a canonical marker of the spring northern sky; its alpha star Aldebaran and the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters lie within its bounds and are often read mythographically as the seven Pleiades sisters resting on the bull's shoulder. In modern culture Disney's Hercules (1997), the Dungeons and Dragons monster manuals, and Greek heritage tourism keep the figure central.

In Popular Culture

• Bacchylides, Dithyramb 17 (5th c. BCE) — Theseus and the Marathonian bull
• Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca II.5.7 — canonical seventh labour of Heracles
• Pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome I.5 — Marathonian bull and Theseus
• Diodorus Siculus IV.13.4 and Hyginus Fabulae 30, 38, 40
• Ovid, Metamorphoses IX.186 — Latin reception
• Plutarch, Theseus 14 — canonical Marathonian bull narrative
• Pausanias, Description of Greece I.27.10 — geographical localisation

Trivia

Latin Taurus derives from Greek tauros ('bull'), itself going back to a Proto-Indo-European root *tauros ('wild bull, bovine') with cognates in Sanskrit sthura and Persian sthor. The constellation Taurus is among the oldest known, appearing on Mesopotamian astronomical tablets from the third millennium BCE; its alpha star Aldebaran takes its name from Arabic al-dabaran ('the follower'), so called because it appears to follow the Pleiades cluster across the sky. The identification of the Marathonian bull as the same creature as the Cretan Bull is first made explicit in pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca; earlier Greek poets often treated them as distinct beasts. The plain of Marathon became famous to later generations chiefly through the Battle of Marathon of 490 BCE, and the myth of Theseus subduing the bull on the same plain a thousand years before became closely bound up with Athenian civic identity after the Persian Wars.