The humanizing
spirit of Greece treated bulls very differently. It was their
potency rather than their ferocity that impressed the Greeks, and
thus the bull became a favourite embodiment of Zeus, eloping with
the not unwilling Europa, as we see him on a Greek vase, and in
Titian's masterpiece. Finally we must consider the confusing part
played by a bull in the legend of Mithras. At first a god, he
becomes a man, a barbarian soldier in a Phrygian cap, who is
represented as killing a bull with his sword. The sacred animal has
become the victim of sacrifice. The importance of this concept is
obvious. Although we have no written records of Mithraism, for it
was an all-male freemasonry sworn to secrecy, there is no doubt
that it was the most formidable rival to Christianity up to the
time of Constantne. The sacrifice of the bull as the symbol
of redemption and new life shows how profound were the spiritual
needs of the late antique world, which were answered so differently
by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
Men had sacrificed
animals for thousands of years. It seems to have been one of the
most ancient human instincts. As we do not feel a trace of it today
it is difficult for us to see why the practice became a necessity
all over the ancient world. Many books have been written about the
subject, in which the arguments are like vast bundles of thread
beginning nowhere, ending nowhere, and practically impossible to
unravel. But out of this confusing, and often contradictory,
evidence a few skeins may be extracted : propitiation, atonement,
the need to assert kinship. While men still felt a kinship with
animals, to eat them was a crime against the group, and expiation
could be achieved only by a ritual feast in which all were
involved. Communion was the first basis of sacrifice. But quite
soon the belief grew up that the gods were pleased by sacrifice,
particularly by the smell of burnt offerings, in which the food was
given solely to them. The more the gods had to be propitiated to
avert disaster or secure the success of some enterprise, the more
sacrifices they required. Finally, sacrifices could become an
assertion of royal or priestly authority. The priest is seen as the
visible mediator between the people and the god. Thus in the
relationship of animals and what had been an act of kinship became
an act of pure destruction, and led to the animal carnage of the
Roman amphitheatre.
