BULL WRESTLING

Bull Wrestling (taurokathapsia) in this context refers to a sport practiced in Thessaly during the national games (Taureia) that honored Poseidon Taureos. In such contests youth would exhibit their skill by grabbing a bull by the horns and trying to wrestle it to the ground.¹ This practice is depicted on the obverse of silver Thessalian drachms (full profile), hemidrachms (forepart), and obols (face-on) of the �bull wrestling type�. The reverse features a full profile horse prancing or galloping (drachm), forepart of a horse galloping (hemidrachm), or horse�s head (obol). These coin types were minted in Pelinna (460 - 440 BC); Pharkadon (460 - 400 BC); Trikka (440 - 400 BC); Krannon (460 - 440 BC); Larissa (460 - 400 BC); Pherai (460 - 440 BC); Skotoussa (460 - 440 BC).²

One of Poseidon�s sacred animals is the bull and �[t]here are great bull sacrifices for Poseidon and for this reason he may even be called Bull-Poseidon, Taureos�.�³ Yet why might Poseidon be so venerated in Thessaly that he would be honored in national games?

Although Poseidon is most commonly thought of in conjunction with the sea this is not the sum total of his association. For instance, he is credited with creating the first horse. There are various versions of this tale. In a contest with Athena to see who would name the capital of Attica the gods decided that it would be the one to create and bestow upon humankind the most useful gift. Poseidon created the horse; Athena created the olive tree. Athena was declared the winner. In another version, however, Poseidon created the horse in Thessaly itself.⁴ According to Walter Burkert �[a]ncient, uncensored myths make Poseidon the direct father of the horse. In the cult of Rock Poseidon, Poseidon Petraios, in Thessaly, and also on the Kolonos Hippios in Athens, Poseidon is said to have spilled his semen on a rock from which the first horse sprang forth.�⁵

Not only is Poseidon credited with creating the first horse in Thessaly, a land known for its horses and famed calvarymen,⁶ he is also credited with creating Thessaly itself. As Rock Poseidon �[i]n Thessaly it was said that his trident had cut out the Tempe valley between Olympia and Ossa so that the lake which covered Thessaly could flow away.�⁷

No wonder the Thessalians celebrated Poseidon in national games and chose to represent the sport of Bull Wrestling (taurokathapsia) on the coinage of seven cities for a period spanning between 20 and 60 years.

Below you will find three examples, all from Larissa, of the quite diverse bull wrestling type: a drachm, a hemidrachm, and an obol.

¹Barclay V. Head. [Wiki] Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1911, p. 291, accessed February 22, 2021,

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=thessaly. Also see Oliver D. Hoover. Handbook of Coins of Northern and Central Greece: The Handbook of Greek Coinage

Series, Vol. 4. Lancaster/London: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc, 2014, p. 132.

²Hoover 2014, p. 100 ff.

³Walter Burkert. Greek Religion. Trans. John Raffan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985, p. 138.

⁴�Poseidon,� accessed February 22, 2021, https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Poseidon.html. See primary source citations therein.

⁵Burkert 1985, p. 138.

⁶Nomos AG, Auction 4. Coins of Thessaly, the BCD Collection (10 May 2011, Zurich), p. 9, accessed February 22, 2021, https://issuu.com/cngcoins/docs/bcd_triton_xv_virtual_catalog.

⁷Burkert 1985, p. 137.

Obv: Hero (Thessalos?) to l. naked, except for chlamys around his shoulders and petasos, flying in the air, attached to his neck by a cord, holding with both hands the head of a bull leaping l. All within a border of dots. Rev: ΛΑΡΙ above to the r., ΣΑΙΑ below to the r., bridled horse galloping r., ground line. All within incuse square. Denomination: silver drachm; Mint: Larissa; Date: c. 420 - 400 BC; Weight: 5.83g; Diameter: 19mm: Die axis: 180�. Herrmann Group III Series H Rev. I; BCD Thessaly II 174; HGC 4, 420.

Obv: Hero (Thessalos?) to r. naked, except for chlamys around his shoulders and petasos, flying in the air, attached to his neck by a cord, holding with both hands the head of a bull leaping r., retrograde RI below bull�s belly. All within a border of dots. Rev: Λ to l., ARI above, forepart of bridled horse galloping l., Jason�s sandal below. All within incuse square. Denomination: silver hemidrachm; Mint: Larissa; Date: c. 460 - 440 BC; Weight: 2.8g; Diameter: ?mm: Die axis: 180�. BCD Thessaly II 373.1; HGC 4 456. [Resized image ANS 1944.100.16917, American Numismatic Society, accessed February 25, 2021, http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.16917?lang=en.

Obv: bull head and neck r., head turned to face the viewer, on the l. and behind half figure of a hero (Thessalos?) to r. with l. arm over the bull�s neck and r. hand below the bull�s muzzle. All within border of dots. Rev: ΛΑ r. and upwards, head and neck of bridled horse r. All within incuse square. Denomination: silver obol; Mint: Larissa; Date: c. 460 - 440 BC; Weight: 1.01g; Diameter: 11mm: Die axis: 180�. Liampi Corpus p. 102, 6 (V4-R5), Pl. 4, 13 and 14; BCD Thessaly II 353.3; HGC 4 480.