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The Cretan Bull Sports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Anne Ward
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Extract

The actual nature of the Cretan bull sports can scarcely be in doubt. The wealth of representations of all stages of this extraordinary exhibition are clear enough as far as we are concerned with what actually happened. There remain, however, many unclarified questions about its motivation and purpose, the identity of its performers, its frequency, and above all its location. There has been much speculation on this point, which, reduced to its essence, seems to postulate that the sports took place either in the Central Courts of the great palaces or in some other, as yet unidentified, arena. Evans [I] and Pendlebury [2] both suggest the existence of a temporary wooden palisade outside the palace (at Knossos, on the level ground to the east). Their objections to the Central Court as the site of the bull sports are largely of a practical common-sense nature. An excited bull is a dangerous creature, and extremely difficult to control. To get it on to the court, through the narrow corridors and ornately painted and furnished rooms by which the court is approached, would pose formidable problems ; but once arrived the difficulties could be even greater.

Type
Articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 42 , Issue 166 , June 1968 , pp. 117 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1968

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References

Notes

[1] JHS, XLI, 1921, 247–59 Google Scholar.

[2] J. D. S. Pendlebury, Archaeology of Crete, 187.

[3] Mallia, Quatrième rapport, 22.

[4] Archaeological Reports of the Hellenic Society and the British School, 1964–5, fig. 37.

[5] Palace of Minos, 111, 46.

[6] Jahr. Deutsch. arch. Inst., XXX, 1915, 248 Google Scholar, fig. 3.

[7] e.g. Palace of Minos, 1, 686, fig. 504d.

[8] Palace of Minos, 1, 377, fig. 274; H. T. Bossert, Altkreta, 42 (401. i); A. Furtwängler, Antike Gemmen, 11, 26, no. 9.

[9] L. Pernier, Monumenti Antichi, XII, 81, fig. 21.

[10] R. Paribeni, Monumenti Antichi, XIX, 5–86, pls. 1–3.

[11] Palace of Minos, 1, 393 and fig. 286.

[12] Palace of Minos, 1, 355 and fig. 152.

[13] Festòs, II, 60.

[14] Mallia, Deuxième rapport, 6.

[15] AJA, 61, 1957, 258 Google Scholar.

[16] Palace of Minos, III, 59, fig. 35.

[17] Palace of Minos, II, 118, n. 1.

[18] Mallia, Première rapport, 30–2.

[19] Festòs, II, 55.

[20] Loc. cit, 255.

[21] Archaeological Reports, 1964–5, 29.

[22] Tsountas, C., Eph. Arch., 1889, 129–71Google Scholar; G. Perrot, Histoire de l’Art, VI, 784.