Hercules and the Cretan Bull

According to Jeremy McInerney, the iconography of the bull permeates Minoan culture. The cult of the bull was also prominent in southwestern Anatolia. Bernard Clive Dietrich notes that the most important animal in the Neolithic shrines at Çatalhöyük was the bull. The bull was a chthonic animal associated with fertility and vegetation. It figured in cave cults connected with rites for the dead.  

According to Greek myth, to confirm his right to rule, King Minos of Crete prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull as a sign. Poseidon sent Minos the bull, with the understanding that bull would be sacrificed to the god. Deciding that Poseidon's bull was too fine of a specimen to kill, Minos sent the bull to his herds and substituted another, inferior bull for sacrifice. Enraged, Poseidon had Aphrodite cause Pasiphaë, wife of Minos, to fall in love with the bull. She subsequently gave birth to the half-man, half-bull, Minotaur. Poseidon passed on his rage to the bull, causing him lay waste to the land.

As his seventh labor, Heracles was sent to capture the bull by Eurystheus.  Heracles sailed to Crete and King Minos gave Heracles permission to take the bull away as he had been wreaking havoc on Crete by uprooting crops and leveling orchard walls. Heracles captured the bull, and then shipped him to Eurystheus in Tiryns. The bull later broke loose and wandered into Marathon, becoming known as the "Marathonian Bull" who was later captured and sacrificed by Theseus.

McInerney observes that the story of Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull was not written until after Crete had come under Greek control, however, and despite the fact that the palace at Knossos displays a number of murals depicting young men and women vaulting over a bull, scholars are divided as to whether or not this reflects an actual practice.  There is also no recorded evidence that has been recovered there of any Minoan legend of the famous Cretan Bull or the Minotaur either.

Hercules and the Cretan Bull at Schwerin Castle, Germany courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Jens Burkhardt-Plückhahn

Heracles fighting the Cretan bull, while a siren perches on a branch. Laconian black-figure kylix in the manner of the Arkesilas Painter, ca. 550 BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor ClaireH. (glare removed)

Ivory figure of Hercules capturing the Cretan bull, probably used to decorate a piece of furniture or a box, Roman 1st century CE, ivory, courtesy of the British Museum

Detail of the Mosaic with the Labors of Hercules (Seventh Labour: Cretan Bull), 3rd century AD, found in Llíria (Valencia), National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddatto

Heracles and the Cretan Bull - a metope from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Nicholas Hartmann

Detail of a Roman sarcophagus from Perge, Turkey depicting the capture of the Cretan Bull, 2nd century CE (?) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Mourad Ben Abdallah

Heracles binds the Cretan bull. Attic black-figure amphora in the manner of the Antimenes Painter, ca. 510 BCE From Vulci, Italy at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich, Germany courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Bibi Saint-Pol.

Architectural terracotta plaque (so-called Campana plaque) representing Hercules capturing the Cretan bull, 1st half of the 1st century CE, discovered in 1828 in Quadraro (Roma Vecchia), Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Vatican City, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Jean-Pol Grandmont

 

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Achelous and the origin of the Horn of Plenty

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the god Achelous (also Acheloos or Acheloios) was associated with the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece. According to Hesiod, he was the son of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. He was also said to be the father of the Sirens, several nymphs, and other offspring. Achelous was able to change his shape, and in the form of a bull, he wrestled Heracles for the right to marry Deianeira, daughter of the king of Calydon, but lost.  This myth is retold in a 7th century BCE poem by Archilochus.  In the 5th century BCE, Pindar claimed Heracles broke off one of Achelous's horns, and the river-god was able to get his horn back by trading it for a horn from Amalthea, foster mother of Zeus.

In his play, Women of Trachis, Sophocles relates Deianeira's account of the courtship:

"For my suitor was a river-god, Achelous, who in three shapes was always asking me from my father—coming now as a bull in visible form, now as a serpent, sheeny and coiled, now ox-faced with human trunk, while from his thick-shaded beard wellheads of fountain-water sprayed. In the expectation that such a suitor would get me, I was always praying in my misery that I might die, before I should ever approach that marriage-bed. But at last, to my joy, the glorious son of Zeus and Alcmena came and closed with him in combat and delivered me."

The Roman poet, Ovid, in his account of the struggle in his poem, Metamorphoses (8 CE), describes how Achelous fights Heracles, and loses three times: first in his normal (human?) shape, then as a snake, and finally as a bull. Heracles tore off one of Achelous's bull-horns, and the Naiads filled the horn with fruit and flowers, transforming it into the "Horn of Plenty" (cornucopia).  Diodorus Siculus and Strabo explain the myth as an offshoot of an actual event.  According to Diodorus, Heracles diverted the Achelous River's course, while according to Strabo, some writers "conjecturing the truth from the myths" said that, to please his father-in-law Oeneus, Heracles confined the river by means of "embankments and channels". In this way, Heracles defeated the raging river, and in so doing created a large amount of new fertile land of the Achelous River delta which came to be known as Amaltheia's horn of plenty.

From at least as early as Homer, Achelous was apparently considered to be an important divinity throughout Greece. A commentary on Iliad 21.195, preserved on Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 221, contains a fragment of a poem, possibly from the Epic tradition, which mentions "the waters of silver-eddying Achelous" being the source of "the whole sea." The Oxyrhynchus Papyrus also mentions  "many people sacrifice to Achelois before sacrificing to Demeter, since Acheloios is the name of all rivers and the crop comes from water."  According to the early 4th-century BCE Greek historian Ephorus, the oracle at Dodona usually added to his pronouncements the command to offer sacrifices to Achelous, and that, while people would offer sacrifices to their local river, only the Achelous river was honored everywhere, with Achelous's name often being invoked in oaths, prayers and sacrifices. Achelous was also an important deity in the Etruscan religion, intimately related to water as in the Greek tradition but also carrying significant chthonic associations. Man-faced bull iconography was first adapted to represent Achelous by the Etruscans in the 8th century BCE, and some scholars think the Greeks later adopted this same tradition. Seer-healers and mercenaries during the Iron Age, used iconography of Achelous as a man-faced bull for centuries.

Closeup of Hercules battling Achelous in the form of a serpent  by François-Joseph Bosio, 1824, at The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Juanedc

Full Length Hercules battling Achelous in the form of a serpent  by François-Joseph Bosio, 1824, at The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Acroter of Achelous from the southern sanctuary of Pyrgi, an ancient Etruscan port in Latium, central Italy, to the northwest of Caere 510 BCE, at the Etruscan Museum in the Villa Giulia in Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Mask of the River God Achelous. Marathon (Attica, Greece), marble, around 470 BC. Antikensammlung Berlin (Altes Museum) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Zde.

 Pendant necklace in the shape of Acheloos head. Gold. Circa 480 BCE courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Tangopaso.

Ivory plaque depicting Hercules and Achelous (in the form of a bull), 1670, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

Etruscan bronze protome of Achelous from Tarquinia, 500-475 BCE, at the Etruscan Museum in the Villa Giulia in Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Vase in the form of a head of Acheloos from east Greece, terracotta, 550-525 BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Hercules Battling Achelous, ivory, mid-17th century CE, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The vertex stone of an arch with a depiction of the river deity Achelous, from Pula, 2nd - 3rd century CE, on display in the Temple of Augustus, Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea, Histria courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Bronze Etruscan shield with head of Achelous 6th century BCE that I photographed at the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas.

Achelous was often depicted as a bearded mask such as in this Roman floor mosaic from Zeugma, Turkey courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Achelous terracotta mask (patron deity of the Achelous River), 1st century BCE, Monsters. Fantastic Creatures of Fear and Myth Exhibition, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato

Etruscan antefix representing the river god Achelous, 4th century BCE courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Keramion.

 

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Damnatio ad Bestias

Second century CE mosaic of a bull and his victims  condemned to damnatio ad bestias 2nd century CE from Leptis Magna, Libya courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Testus.

The exact purpose of the early damnatio ad bestias is not known and might have been a religious sacrifice rather than a legal punishment, especially in the regions where lions existed naturally and were revered by the population, such as Africa, India and other parts of Asia. For example, Egyptian mythology had a chimeric Underworld demon, Ammit, who devoured the souls of exceptionally sinful humans, as well as other lion-like deities, such as Sekhmet, who, according to legend, almost devoured all of humanity soon after her birth. There are also accounts of feeding lions and crocodiles with humans, both dead and alive, in Ancient Egypt and Libya.

Similar condemnations are described by historians of Alexander's campaigns in Central Asia. A Macedonian named Lysimachus, who spoke before Alexander for a person condemned to death, was himself thrown to a lion, but overcame the beast with his bare hands and became one of Alexander's favorites. In northern Africa, during the Mercenary War, Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca threw prisoners to the beasts, whereas Hannibal forced Romans captured in the Punic Wars to fight each other, and the survivors had to stand against elephants.

The custom of submitting criminals to lions was brought to ancient Rome by two commanders, Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, who defeated the Macedonians in 167 BCE, and his son Scipio Aemilianus, who conquered the African city of Carthage in 146 BCE. It was originally a military punishment, possibly borrowed from the Carthaginians. Rome reserved its earliest use for non-Roman military allies found guilty of defection or desertion. The sentenced were tied to columns or thrown to the animals, practically defenseless. Historians distinguish between this type of exposure without weapons, objicĕre bestiis, and damnatio ad bestias, where the punished are both expected and prepared to fight.

When I first saw this mosaic, I thought it might be a depiction of a sacrificial bull that had broken free from its priest handlers, although the bull's horns were not garlanded, but the presence of the individual in the upper right hand corner with a stick, a kind of official, and the fact that the Wikimedia Commons contributor had assigned the image to a category for mosaics depicting damnatio ad bestias informed me otherwise.  The image was actually scanned from a Russian art book so I had no way to cross check it.

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