Minoan Bullhead Silver Pendant - Symbol of Power Strength Prosperity - Palace of Knossos - Crete - Bronze Age - Ancient Greece

Ancient cultures throughout recognized the physical power of the bull and venerated the bull as a creature of the cosmos. The Minoan people of Crete, 2000 – 1450 BCE, emphasized bull veneration in their spiritual practices. Minoans found logic in their natural world and felt humans and the environment were in harmony. Living in a turbulent geographical area, ritual practices incorporating the chaos of the universe and man’s ability to overcome the natural environment were common place.They expressed their relationship and worship of nature and natural elements through craft and art. Through Greek myth and archaeology, art has reconstructed and help guided our understanding of the Minoan culture. The evidence of such studies describe that Minoans saw the bull as a physical representation of an earth deity. Through looking at the myth of the Minotaur, ritual surrounding the bull, art featuring the bull, and analyzing similar iconography of other cultures, the Minoan deification of the bull is undeniable.

The existence of King Minos and the myth of the Minotaur is debated but proves a long reaching connection to the bull in Minoan history. King Minos of Crete feared the dwindling power of his empire and hence asked Poseidon for a bull to sacrifice. When a white bull emerged for the sea it was so handsome that Minos decided to keep it. Poseidon did not approve and cursed Pasiphae, Minos wife, to fall in love with the bull. The Minotaur, half beast, half man became the product of their consummation. Minos locked the beastly Minotaur in the labyrinth, and it was later killed by the hero Theseus. This myth demonstrates the awe and attraction the Minoans had to the white bull, its ephemeral beauty and power. This bull, delivered by Poseidon was clearly other worldly. In the majority of Greek myths, other than humans, gods almost exclusively impregnate humans. Does this impregnation of Pasiphae by the bull suggest the bull is a god? This would explain the abundance of bull iconography in Minoan art and the importance of the Minotaur myth to the culture.

The Minoans associated the bull with the sun and the moon. In iconography found on vessels and rhytons there is often a sun disc rising or a double axe between the horns of a bull head. In the case of the double axe over the bull head this is not a sacrificial tool but rather represents the sun rising over the mountain. This pendant is handcrafted with extra care in 925 Sterling Silver. It 's Handmade in Greece, its height size is 25mm and weighs approximately 3 g. This pendant is without the chain(200M)