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Heracles and the Cretan Bull Heracles seems to be the only one who can keep Poseidon’s rampaging white bull under control. Music: Richard Jones

© Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

The waters of the Mediterranean Sea at the Gulf of Mesara, and the ruins of Komos, an ancient harbour town of southern Crete, a few miles from the Minoan palace at Phaestus (Faistos). It was from the sea that Poseidon’s white bull rose, as test of King Minos’s sincerity when he said he would sacrifice the next creature to come from the sea.

Heracles and the Cretan Bull
News that a mad bull is loose on Crete and destroying crops and livelihoods reaches Eurystheus, and naturally he thinks at once that the gods have given him another opportunity to dispose of his cousin Heracles.

WHEN King Minos of Crete promised to sacrifice to Poseidon whatever should next emerge from the sea, Poseidon kindly sent him a superb white bull.

Minos, however, could not bring himself to destroy so magnificent a beast, so he kept it for himself and substituted another from his own herds. At this, Poseidon’s bull went berserk, which is what gave Eurystheus the idea of sending Heracles to fetch it.

Poseidon was not best pleased either, and at his bidding Aphrodite induced Queen Pasiphaë to fall in love with the bull. A half bull, half man called the Minotaur was the result, which Minos eventually confined in the Labyrinth, an ingenious maze.

Meanwhile, Heracles wrestled its sire, Poseidon’s white bull, to the ground, and delivered it to Eurystheus – some say he carried it home on his shoulders. As soon as Heracles released it, the bull went mad again, causing havoc across all Arcadia before rampaging on to Marathon, where at last Theseus slew it.

Twelve Labours of Heracles Next: Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes

Précis

Heracles was sent to Crete to capture a magnificent white bull, a gift to King Minos, which had gone mad after the king failed to sacrifice it to Poseidon - it was this bull that sired the dreadful Minotaur. Heracles delivered it to Eurystheus as required, but the bull escaped and ravaged the countryside until Theseus hunted it down. (59 / 60 words)

Source

Based on ‘Library’ II.5.7 by Pseudo-Apollodorus (ca. 1st or 2nd century AD) and ‘Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome’, by E.M. Berens.

Suggested Music

Chamber Airs, Op. 2: Sonata No. 1 in D Major

I. Preludio: Allegro

Richard Jones (1680-1744)

Performed by Kreeta-Maria Kentala, Lauri Pulakka and Mitzi Meyerson.

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