Zodiac Myths: Taurus

Zodiac stories about Taurus come from Greek mythology and the constellation of Taurus. There are many bulls in Greek stories. The most famous one is the story of Minotaurus. Come and Join to the myth and wonder of zodiac stories.

Transcript

In Greek mythology there are lots of stories about bulls.

There is two bright stars called Aldebaran and they are the eyes of the bull and usually artists when they depict this constellation it is a bull that is bowing and the horns of the bull they are pointing to the constellation of Gemini.

There is a very famous story about the princess called Europa and she was a divinely beautiful princess.

She must have been gorgeous because there is a whole continent that was named after her.

So in the story about Europa,

Zeus the leader of all gods fell in love to Europa.

Zeus he was spying on Europa when she was playing on the seashore with her maidens and Zeus being a shapeshifter god turned himself into this light brown golden bull and he had a circle in his forehead and he was not like any other bull he was very gentle and Europa went to.

.

What's the word.

.

Pat him.

The bull kneeled and Europa climbed into his pack and she asked if the maidens would come with her but they were all very scared now.

Straight after she had climbed into the bull's back the bull ran into the sea.

Bull which really was Zeus was a very good swimmer so they were swimming and the waves were very calm and there were fishes and dolphins around them and Europa she climbed into the bull's horns and soon she realized that this is no ordinary bull.

Bull took Europa to the island of Crete where she bore him three sons and they all became very famous in Greek myths.

One of them was King Minos who was the famous legendary king in Crete and one was Radamanjes who was the judge of the dead in the underworld.

Then Sarpedon who was one of the soldiers in the war of Troy.

In most legends this bull is Zeus himself and to remember this exploit that's why he put the constellation of the bull to the skies.

The most famous story about the bull in Crete is of course the story of Minotaurus.

The story of Minotaurus started when King Minos son of Zeus married a woman called Passifei who was daughter of the son and Passifei she was very beautiful woman and it happened one day that Zeus sent a bull to rise from the sea.

It was a sign that proved that Minos indeed was his son and Minos he was supposed to sacrifice this bull for Zeus but he refused because the bull was so gorgeous being he just wanted to keep it as a pet and as a sign of his power.

Zeus got really mad that his son was so arrogant.

I wonder where he got that from and he turned Passifei to fall in love with the bull.

Passifei became very infatuated by this animal and she needed someone to help him so she went on to Daedalus who was a famous craftman who had fledged from Athens to Crete.

He could make intimate objects to move so he could make what we now consider as robots and stuff like that,

AIs.

He created a mechanical bull and the queen could go inside it.

Then there was consequences of this spell that was cast by Zeus and Passifei became pregnant and she had a baby that was half man half bull.

Minotaurus that literally means the bull of Minos.

Passifei she had tried to keep her pregnancy secret but of course people find out and she was punished to be executed.

To give a home for Minotaurus or foremost to hide Minotaurus from sight King Minos he ordered Daedalus to build a giant maze where he could hide this creature and that was the start of the labyrinth,

Famous labyrinth of Minotaurus.

And at the same time the only son of King Minos Androkos,

I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right,

He was killed by the Athenians so to punish Minotaurus and all the Athenians,

Minos started a cruel-sum tradition.

Every year Athenians were forced to send seven maidens and seven young men to Crete.

They were sent to the labyrinth sacrificed for the Minotaurus.

Athenian prince Theseus he volunteered to go to the labyrinth and with the help of the daughter of Minos Ariadne they together managed to slay Minotaurus and then they fell in love during this battle and Theseus promised to marry Ariadne but he never kept his promise.

In Greek mythology it actually belongs to the Odyslayer in the mythology and the bull as an animal that was worshipped by the ancient Greeks during different time periods that is very very very ancient and it goes all the way back to the Minoan culture and from the Minoan culture we get the names like Minos and Minotaurus and that is also the area where we believe that the story has its origins.

The story of Minotaurus has its origins in Minoan culture.

Some of you might know the palace of Knossos which is in Crete and it is believed to be the original labyrinth.

It's not really a labyrinth underground like many people many times people think it's a labyrinth underground but the palace itself it is a maze it's something that really looks like a place where this story might have taken place actually or in people's imaginations in the past and the Minoan culture it is really fascinating and some of the things that I absolutely loved when I studied art history studying on the cultures of the ancient world I absolutely adore Minoan history and the mythology and the art history it's beautiful so the Minoan culture it's sort of a pre-Creek culture and Minoan culture it was destroyed by either an earthquake or a massive giant wave and it is believed that it was something that started the legend of Atlantis.

Now the Minoan culture what we have found out all these artworks from there and these murals they represent bull as a sacred animal there were lots of these paintings and murals where people are playing with bulls and bulls are sort of godlike figures so these people they worshiped the bull and bull was their totem animal so to speak so this whole story it goes back thousands and thousands and thousands of years and it has changed and got different ingredients during different time periods but it is really interesting.

It is the story of Taurus and Taurus it is ruled by the planet Venus and sometimes it's considered as quite a feminine sign which can be very interesting and I think that goes back to this whole idea of Pasiphae being the mother of Minotaurus so she's in a way mother of god and in a way also Europa is a mother of god mother of these bulls it's a it's a interesting concept but in a way it is no difference to this idea how people used to perceive totem animals and spirit animals in different cultures because when people had a totem animal or a certain group of people had a totem animal they respected these different qualities of this certain animal.

They have qualities that we can now see that that would have been very much important for the ancient Greeks because bulls they are really strong and they're very fast and like sort of at least lead athletic animals so that's something that properly had its effects on people.

Taurus it is an earth sign like where I go and the Taurus people they are they tend to be very earthy down to earth downshifting strong and very persistent but that's it for today's video guys thank you so much for watching I hope you enjoyed