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((short description|Creature in Greek mythology))
((More citations needed|date=October 2015))
((Infobox mythical creature
|image    = Mosaico Trabajos Hércules (M.A.N. Madrid) 07.jpg
|caption  = [[Heracles]] capturing the Cretan Bull. Detail of a Roman mosaic from [[Lliria, Spain|Llíria]] ([[Spain]]).
|Grouping      = [[Legendary creature]]
|Country       = [[Greece]]
|Region        = [[Crete]]
))
In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Cretan Bull''' (((lang-grc|Κρὴς ταῦρος|Krḕs taûros))) was the bull [[Pasiphaë]] fell in love with, giving birth to the [[Minotaur]].

== Mythology ==
===Background===
[[File:Drachme from Larissa, around 420 BC depicting Heracles with the Cretan Bull.jpg|thumb|[[Ancient drachma]] from [[Larissa]], around 420 BC, depicting Heracles with the Cretan Bull. Now in the [[Palais de Rumine]], Lausanne, Switzerland]]
[[Minos]] was king in [[Minoan civilization|Crete]]. In order to confirm his right to rule, rather than any of his brothers, he prayed [[Poseidon]] send him a snow-white bull as a sign. Poseidon sent Minos the bull, with the understanding that the 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]] curse [[Pasiphaë]], the wife of Minos, causing her 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 to lay waste to the land.<ref>[htt
2&dq=cretan+bull&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyprjoit_KAhVJUJAKHY5hBkE4ChDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=cretan%20bull&f=false Buenger, Theodore Arthur. ''Crete in the Greek Tradition'', University of Pennsylvania, 1915]</ref>

After consulting the oracle at Delphi, Minos had [[Daedalus]] construct the [[Labyrinth]] to hold the Minotaur.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/bull.html "The Cretan Bull", The Perseus Project, (Gregory R. Crane, ed.), Tufts University]</ref>

===The seventh labour of Heracles===
[[File:Herculean effort.jpg|thumb|Heracles performing one of his labors as he forces the Cretan Bull to the ground. The engraving was created by [[B. Picart]] in 1731.]]
[[Heracles]] was sent to capture the bull by [[Eurystheus]] as his [[Twelve Labours|seventh task]]. He sailed to [[Crete]], whereupon [[Minos]] gave Heracles permission to take the bull away<ref name="Apollod">Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' 2.5.7</ref> 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, Greece|Marathon]], becoming known as the "Marathonian Bull".<ref name="Apollod" /> Eurystheus then sent Heracles to bring back the man-eating [[Mares of Diomedes]] (the next task).

===Capture by Theseus===
[[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]], a son of Minos and Pasiphaë, competed in the games held by [[Aegeus]], [[King of Athens]]. He won all the games, but the bull, which broke free from his pen, rampaged through the city and trampled Androgeus. Devastated, Minos went to war with Athens and won. As punishment, the [[Athens|Athenians]] had to send [[Sacrificial victims of the Minotaur|several youths every 9 years]] to be devoured by the [[Minotaur]].

[[Theseus]] set to try to capture the bull. On the way to Marathon, Theseus sought shelter from a storm in the shack owned by an old lady named [[Hecale]]. She swore to make a sacrifice to [[Zeus]] if Theseus was successful in capturing the bull. Theseus did capture the bull, but when he returned to Hecale's hut, she was dead. Theseus built a [[deme]] in her honour. He then dragged the bull to Athens where he sacrificed him to [[Athena]] and/or [[Apollo (god)|Apollo]]. Theseus then went to Crete where he killed the Minotaur with the help of Minos' daughter [[Ariadne]].

==Origin==
According to Jeremy McInerney, the iconography of the bull permeates [[Minoan civilization|Minoan culture]].<ref name=penn>((Cite web |url=http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/pdfs/53-3/mcinerney.pdf |title=McInerney, Jeremy. "Bulls and Bull-leaping in the Minoan World", Penn Museum |access-date=2016-02-04 |archive-date=2023-06-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621133120/https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/pdfs/53-3/mcinerney.pdf |url-status=dead ))</ref>  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.<ref name=Dietrich>[https://books.google.com/books?id=eQO7haySEe8C&dq=cretan+bull&pg=PA101 Dietrich, Bernard Clive. "Some Older Traditions in Minoan Crete", ''The Origins of Greek Religion'', Walter de Gruyter, 1974] ((ISBN|9783110039825))</ref>

The palace at Knossos displays a number of murals depicting young men and women vaulting over a bull. While scholars are divided as to whether or not this reflects an actual practice, Barry B. Powell suggests it may have contributed to the story of the young Athenians sent to the Minotaur.<ref name=Powell>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lNV6-HsUppsC&dq=cretan+bull&pg=RA1-PA329 Powell, Barry B., "Cretan Mythology", ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', Vol. 7, Oxford University Press, 2009] ((ISBN|9780195170726))</ref> McInerney observes that the story of Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull was not written until after Crete had come under Greek control. [[Emma Stafford]] notes that the story of the Cretan Bull does not appear before the Hellenistic period and suggests the connection between Crete and Athens is the result of the development of the myth of the Theseus cycle in late sixth century Athens.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3JDj7MRQAn4C&dq=cretan+bull&pg=PA39 Stafford, Emma. "The Cretan bull", ''Herakles'', Routledge, 2013] ((ISBN|9781136519277))</ref>

== In classical literature ==
Chronological listing of classical literature sources for the ''Cretan'' and ''Marathonian Bull'':

=== The Cretan Bull ===
* Euripides, ''Hippolytus'' 337 ff (trans. Coleridge) (Greek tragedy C5th BC)
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 4. 13. 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history C1st BC)
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 4. 77. 1
* Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 6. 24 ff (trans. Hamilton Bryce) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC)
* Virgil, ''Eclogue'' 6, 43ff (trans. Hamilton Bryce) (Roman bucolic poetry C1st BC)
* Propertius, ''Elegies'' 2. 32 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st BC)
* Propertius, ''Elegies'' 3. 19
* Propertius, ''Elegies'' 4. 7
* Lucretius, ''Of the Nature of Things'' 5. Proem 1 (trans. Leonard) (Roman philosophy C1st BC)
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 8. 130 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 8. 136 ff
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 8. 155 ff
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 9. 186 ff
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 9. 735 ff
* Ovid, ''Fasti'' 3. 500 ff (trans. Miller)
* Ovid, ''Heroides'' 4. 56 ff (trans. Miller)
* Ovid, ''Heroides'' 4. 165 ff
* Bacchylides papyrus, Fragment 26 (''Greek Lyric'' trans. Campbell Vol. 4) (Greek poetry C1st AD)
* Philippus of Thessalonica, ''The Twelve Labors of Hercules'' (''The Greek Classics'' ed. Miller Vol 3 1909 p.&nbsp;397) (Greek epigrams C1st AD)
* Seneca, ''Hippolytus'' 113 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st AD)
* Seneca, ''Hippolytus'' 1163 ff
* Seneca, ''Hercules Furens'' 230 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st AD)
* Seneca, ''Agamemnon'' 833 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st AD)
* Valerius Flaccus, ''Argonautica'' 1. 34ff (trans. Blomfield) (Roman epic poetry C1st AD)
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Library'' 2. 5. 7 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythography C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Library'' 3. 1. 3
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 1. 27. 9 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 30 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythography C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 38
* Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 40
* Philostratus the Elder, ''Imagines'' 1. 16 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetoric C3rd AD)
* Quintus Smyrnaeus, ''Fall of Troy'' 6. 236 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic poetry C4th AD)
* Nonnos, ''Dionysiaca'' 25. 242 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic poetry C5th AD)
* Nonnos, ''Dionysiaca'' 45, 261
* Nonnos, ''Dionysiaca'' 47. 395 ff
* Suidas, s.v. ''En panti muthoi kai to Daidalou musos'' (trans. Suda On Line) (Greco-Byzantine Lexicon C10th AD)
* Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 1. 473 ff (trans. Untila et al.) (Greco-Byzantine history C12 AD)
* Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 2. 293 ff

=== The Marathonian Bull ===
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 4. 59. 6 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history C1st BC)
* Strabo, ''Geography'' 9. 1. 22 (trans. Jones) (Greek geography C1st BC to C1st AD)
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 7. 433 ff (trans. Frazer) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)
* Statius, ''Thebaid'' 12. 672 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic poetry C1st AD)
* Plutarch, ''Life of Theseus'' 14. 1 ff (trans. Perrin) (Greek history C1st to C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Library'' 2. 5. 7 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythography C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Library'' 3. 15. 7
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Librar''y E1. 5 ff
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 1. 27. 9 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD)
* Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 38 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythography C2nd AD)
* Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 298 ff (trans. Untila et al.) (Greco-Byzantinian history C12 AD)

== In popular culture ==
* [[Taurus (constellation)|Taurus]] is one of the oldest observed constellations, and has been variously connected with the abduction of [[Europa (mythology)|Europa]], the seduction of [[Io (mythology)|Io]], and the Cretan Bull.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tyj8UUE968wC&dq=cretan+bull&pg=PA34 Falkner, David E., "Winter constellations", ''The Mythology of the Night Sky'', The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series, 2011] ((ISBN|9781461401377))</ref> The Taurid meteor shower is named after the radiant point in the constellation Taurus, from where they are seen to come. Occurring in late October and early November, they are sometimes called "Halloween fireballs".
* Charles Bertram Lewis sees the episode of the Monstrous Herdsman in [[Chrétien de Troyes]]' ''[[Yvain, the Knight of the Lion]]'', essentially a re-telling of the story of "Theseus and the Minotaur".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ogyfs2d3guAC&dq=cretan+bull&pg=PA179 Lewis, Charles Bertram. ''Classical Mythology and Arthurian Romance'', Slatkine, 1974]</ref> 
* [[Mary Renault]]'s historical novel, ''[[The Bull from the Sea]]'', recounts the story of Theseus after he returns from Crete.

* In the [[Hercules (miniseries)|2005 ''Hercules'' miniseries]], the bull is adapted out and revealed to actually be [[Antaeus]] roving around on horse back and wearing a horned helmet.

* In the video game [[Assassin's Creed Odyssey]], there is a side quest where the player fights the bull.

== See also ==
* [[Bull (mythology)]]
* [[Donn Cuailnge]], the Brown Bull of Cooley
* [[Kao (bull)]]
* [[Minotaur]]

== References ==
((Reflist))

== External links ==
* ((Commons category-inline))

((Twelve tasks of Hercules))

[[Category:Labours of Hercules]]
[[Category:Labours of Theseus]]
[[Category:Minotaur]]
[[Category:Mythological bulls]]
[[Category:Mythological bovines]]
[[Category:Monsters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Deeds of Poseidon]]
[[Category:History of Crete]]
[[Category:Cattle in art]]
[[Category:Sacred bulls]]

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