Minos Taurus The Bull Of Knossos

I am the bull of Knossos, where rich Minoans live amidst painted splendour. On the island of Crete I am surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, by mountains and plains, by bronze, by plaster, by amphorae of wine. On the extensive fresco painted upon a wall of the Central Court at Knossos I am light brown in hue, my long horns pointing forward, my neck a solid arc of muscle. My hooves are yellow, my tail whisking high in the air. They wish to tame me through such perilous sports, but I am a wild animal.

Bull Leaping

They approach me as I charge at them, youths all of them, male and female, walking, though not at speed. Their faces bear a variety of expressions, some excited, some exhilarated, some showing signs of fear. At the last moment before impact, they reach out with both hands, grabbing my horns and leaping up, using their momentum and my horns to perform a somersault over my back and land behind me.

Fresco depicting the audience at Knossos (Image: Courtesy Micki Pistorius)

The watching crowd roar in approval and clap their hands, for this is a public display. Waving at friends in the crowd, the youths gasp for breath, jogging this way and that as mild winds off the Aegean Sea ruffle their hair. It is their custom, this bull-leaping, in which I am forced to participate. The athletes are all young, each of them at the boundary between child and adult, for this is a rite of passage essential to community life. Both male and female wear loincloths, their hair knotted and curled upon their crowns, longer locks falling down behind them. Their muscles are delineated with dust and sweat in the bright Mediterranean sun.

The rulers of Knossos use the bull-leaping ceremony to strengthen their claim to sovereignty. Though I am fierce and dangerous, they raise me and my kin in special locations, some of us to be led into the bull-leaping arena, some of us intended for more mundane uses. Thus, the rulers direct how Minoans right across Crete view both myself and the Knossos elite. I am the vehicle of their ambitions. Though other palaces contain bull-leaping courts, it is at Knossos where the most experienced priests live, where the best athletes are trained, where I and my kin are raised and where the most spectacular ceremonies are held.

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Extract from I am Taurus by Stephen Palmer. Collective Ink Books.

Top Image: Fresco found in Knossos palace, Crete, Greece, dated 1600 – 1450 BC (CC0)

By: Stephen Palmer