Page 286 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

[144q-"137° b-c-] The Fall of the Sea Kings 233

Poseidon had sent up a bull from the sea for a sacrifice, and how
the first Minos had impiously kept the bull for stud, with unfor­
tunate results to his own marital relationships. But anyway, the
blood of the sea bull ran in the bulls of Crete, and if the wrath
of the storm maker, the earth shaker, was not to follow them by
land and sea the best of his breed must yearly be sacrificed.
So it was with the double satisfaction of having placated the
most influential of all the gods (for a maritime nation, at least)

BULLS AND ACROBATS ARE FAVORITE THEMES OF CRETAN ARTISTS.
THIS SCENE IS TAKEN FROM A MINOAN SEAL, THE ORIGINAL OF
WHICH IS ONLY 1J4 INCHES ACROSS.

and of having thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the process that
the crowds streamed home from the arena, and the teen-agers
went back to their apprenticeships, daydreaming of the thunder
of hooves and practicing in their free minutes, with one of their
number as bull, the last-minute sideslip or the split-second roll
actually underneath the lowered horns.
The years passed more quickly for the youngsters now. By
their late teens marriage was in the air, with much clandestine
meeting of the young men and the girls, and conferences between