The Sphinx symbolized the four elements: fire (lion), water (human), earth (bull), and air (wings).
Each side prepares a bull sacrifice on an altar.
The bull has been a strong symbol in many myths and religions through history.
In ancient Mesopotamia people honored the bull as a symbol of power and protection.
In it the goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh for rejecting her.
The myth ties the bull to divine punishment and heavenly power.
The Apis bull was one of the most important religious symbols of ancient Egypt.
Greek myth is full of bulls.
It had the body of a man and the head of a bull, and it lived in the labyrinth of Crete.
Zeus also turned into a bull to seduce Europa.
That story links the bull with divine power and sexual strength.
Minoan frescoes show nature, religious rites and bull-leaping.
Bull-leaping was a practice found only in their culture.
The double axe (labrys) and the bull were key symbols in it.
In Hinduism the bull is honored as the vehicle (vahana) of Lord Shiva, one of the main gods.
Nandi, the sacred bull, stands for strength, faith and steadiness.
In the Vedic texts bulls are often linked with dharma (cosmic law and order).
So the bull may stand for dharma under his creative principle.
Some traditions link the bull to Prithvi (Earth), which is seen as a creation of Brahma.
The bull's work in farming and feeding people ties it to the creating and nurturing sides of Brahma.
Celtic myth also gives the bull great weight.
The bull's head was used in many rituals as a sign of abundance and of life sustained.
Celtic tribes sacrificed bulls to win a good harvest and to honor their gods.
The bull is central to its imagery.
Its main myth shows the god Mithras killing a sacred bull.
This bull-slaying, called the tauroctony, was the central ritual of Mithraic worship.
It shows the bull's role in cosmic renewal and salvation.
Today the bull is still a symbol of strength, resilience and determination.
A “bull market” is a period of financial optimism and growth.
The bull has a big place here too.
This section looks at the bull in ancient star lore and in astrology.
The best-known bull in the sky is the constellation Taurus.
Taurus is Latin for "bull." In the night sky a V-shaped cluster of stars, the Hyades, forms the bull's face.
The bright star Aldebaran is the bull's eye.
In ancient Mesopotamia, Taurus was linked with the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna, from the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The Mesopotamians saw the bull as a divine guardian.
In ancient Egypt the bull was linked with Osiris.
The constellation Taurus was linked with the bull-god Apis.
So the bull stood for life-giving forces in the sky and on the ground.
The story of Zeus turning into a bull to carry off Europa is mirrored in the stars.
They are believed to share the bull's traits: strength, reliability and a bond with the earth.
This astrology strengthens the bull's link with natural cycles and with sustaining life.
In cosmology the bull often reflects the cycles of the universe.
In many myths the bull plows fields or fights cosmic battles.
That fits the bull's meaning of fertility and community.
Jahi, taurus, the bull.
(See Tablet Biene Poit, the figure of a bull, with man’s face.) The spiritual meaning, force, or force of character, or energy to do, or decree with authority.
As the pope issue a Bull, of which the foregoing was the original.
Nandi is depicted as a majestic white bull and serves as Shiva's mount and gatekeeper.
The Sphinx symbolized the four elements: fire (lion), water (human), earth (bull), and air (wings).
Rituals and Ceremonies: He describes rituals performed by sangomas (traditional healers), such as mating on the back of a Brahman bull to unite heaven and earth, and various other ceremonies that were part of the spiritual fabric of ancient African societies.
This is a Brahman bull.13:19On the back of this bull, rituals were performed as recently as 1941.
The cherubim on the Ark had four faces: a man (Aquarius), a bull (Taurus), a lion (Leo), and an eagle (Scorpio).
Cretan BullA raging bull was terrorizing Crete.
There is no Biblical bull portrait.
Modern art, from Foster Bible pictures through Flaubert’s Salammbô and film Cabiria, blends that rabbinic picture with Diodorus-style Carthaginian Cronus sacrifice and sometimes Minotaur or brazen-bull folklore.
How I use iconography: bull and anthropomorphic bull-head images on this site stay as later artistic and rabbinic tradition, not as a verse-backed portrait.
Mah (Zarathustra) — Zoroastrian lunar deity (Mångha or Mah), yazata (divine being) of the Moon, guardian of plants, livestock, and the "seed of the Bull." Source: Zoroastrian Avesta (Māh Yašt) and Bundahishn texts.
The bull’s body was then transported to the moon and purified into seeds; these seeds became what all animals would feed on and fertilized the earth’s vegetation.
The legend of the minitor says that the Atlanteans were bull worshippers, so the idea is that they adopted some of the Grecian architecture but still retained something quite different.
The Sphinx is described as having a lion's body, a human head, the hooves of a bull, and wings.
Bull's Hooves: Symbolize earth.
Tenacity of the Bull: Represents determination and perseverance.
Angra Mainyu invaded the universe through the base of the sky, inflicting Gayomard and the bull with suffering and death.
From the bull's seed grew all beneficial plants and animals of the world and from the man's seed grew a plant whose leaves became the first human couple.
The bull’s body was then transported to the moon and purified into seeds; these seeds became what all animals would feed on and fertilized the earth’s vegetation.
“…and they produced double-winged beings…and more people with legs of goats and horns on their heads…And others, cloven hoofed—and more with horse bodies and human torsos…they have also wrought bull-headed men…and even other monsters…with manifold characters very different from each other…and many wonderful natures…whose images remain in the Temple of the Belos, one next to the other.” 1
The cluster sits at the shoulder of the Bull.