Bull-Leaping
Bull-Leaping...A Sport?
One of the topics that really stuck out to me that we talked about was the “Bull Leaping”, It took me awhile to wrap my head around this sporting event. There is a lot of history behind this whole concept. This sport has existed for well over 3,000 years, as it was documented in ancient Crete by frescos like the one below of a young man flipping over a charging bull.The first recorded representation of bull-leaping is believed to come from a fresco around 1400 BCE. It has a longer history than bullfighting does, which traces its origins in Spain back to 711 A.D.
The Bronze Age began in about 3200 BC on Crete, marked by the arrival of bronze tools and weapons. Bronze was used the majority of the time for objects such as the bull-leaper. Before humans settled on Crete in about 7000 BC, there weren’t any bulls on the Island, because the settlers only brought more familiar animals in boats such as; cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.
Bulls were the biggest animal on Crete. Bull leaping was performed during religious ceremonies. In Greek myth Crete was home of the Labyrinth and the fearsome Minotaur which is half bull half man. So basically the person will somersault over a bull, or at least try to. They had to make sure they jumped high enough or the would be stabbed with the horns.
The real question is why did they do this? The bulls were worshiped in Ancient Greece. The rules have changed, in the older times the jumper had to grab the bull’s horns and flip over it. But today instead the jumpers just jump over the bull, or somersault.
It has been said that the practice was nothing more than just a simple sport maybe to even test after which boys are considered men. Course Landaise is a modern sport of bull-leaping. Unlike its sister sport, bullfighting, the animal is not harmed in course Landaise. It is mostly practiced in southwestern France and northern Spain.
In bull fighting while capes and dodging bulls are indeed part of the sport, it also involves a matador repeatedly stabbing a bull. So the bull is inevitably slowly killed, and of course the bull never chose to take on this battle. However, there is another option that allows people to demonstrate incredible skill and courage without actually harming any animals: bull-leaping. It is way “safer” to do bull-leaping instead of fight because the fighting kills the bull.
This picture shows each position of how they would hold onto the horns and flip over, and hopefully land at the end.
This Fresco, part of the Palace of Knossos in Crete, Greece, was painted about 1400 BCE. Which shows the bull-leaping event.
This is a video of what a bull-leaping event would actually look like.
Website:
“A History of the World - Object : Minoan Bull Leaper.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/ ahistoryoftheworld/objects/eU0DV7kOQ5inxmklD__YIw.
Cunningham, Sean. “The Truly Crazy, 3,000-Year-Old Sport of Bull-Leaping, Known As Recorte.” RealClearLife, 11 Oct. 2016, www.realclearlife.com/history/the-truly-crazy-3000-year-old-sport-of-bull-leaping-or-recorte/.
Picture:
Minoan Fresco - Bull Leaping, www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Art/Ancient/en/MinoanBullJump.html.
Society, National Geographic. “Bull-Leaping.” National Geographic Society, 11 Feb. 2013, www.nationalgeographic.org/media/bull-leaping/.
This is a really interesting topic you chose. The topic brought my attention as well when it was mentioned in class. I honestly had never heard of bull fighting, nor would I ever want to fight a bull. I like how you talked about the history and explained why the sport was done mentioning religious ceremonies. Thank god that they stopped killing the bull, that is just awful to kill an innocent animal. There are so many things that this activity could have been used to do, like you said when it could have been used for young boys to become men representing bravery and courage or it could have been just a sport that someone got bored and felt like jumping over a bull.
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