I'm not sure if this goes here Mythology question?

[Autumn Clair]

I have a question on the mythology of cows. I know one place considers them sacred but I forget where if anyone knows the answer to that could you tell me. And next does anyone know of a mythical creature part human part cow, like body of a cow, head human anything like that?

Any information would help Thank You................

[angelbaby]

http://www.geocities.com/abecedarius/Cows.html

I did a quick search about cows and mythology, pulled up quite a bit, kind of a strange site this one was but this is what i found on the site.

Cows and bulls have been part of MYTHOLOGY since the beginning of time. The cow usually represented the moon and the bull the sun. A cow was the symbol of Isis the nature goddess of Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Crete the bull was held in high esteem. The Druids used bulls for religious purposes in Ancient England. The Ankole-Watusi can be traced back 6,000 years and are known as the “Cattle of Kings”. The Brown Swiss is also one of the oldest cows in the world and may be related to a breed that existed in the Bronze Age. Festival of Cows is held in north India.

Hope this helps you some.

[Autumn Clair]

[QUOTE=angelbaby]http://www.geocities.com/abecedarius/Cows.html

I did a quick search about cows and mythology, pulled up quite a bit, kind of a strange site this one was but this is what i found on the site.

Cows and bulls have been part of MYTHOLOGY since the beginning of time. The cow usually represented the moon and the bull the sun. A cow was the symbol of Isis the nature goddess of Ancient Egypt.

Thank You for getting back to me so quickly. I was just doing a search myself and found something in mythology on cows it didn't give me all the information though and I'm hoping to find a picture of what the creature looked like. Audumla


ice. She lived off the Niflheim (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Niflheim) ice, licking pieces of salt and hoar frost as the ice melted upon contact with the hot air from Muspell (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Muspell). The frost giant Ymir (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Ymir) lived off of her milk.
While licking the ice, Audumla revealed the shape of a man underneath; she eventually licked him free. This was the god Buri (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Buri), who later fathered Bor (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Bor_%28god%29), father of Odin (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Odin), Vili (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Vili) and Ve (http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Ve). That's all I got so now I need to do further search for this and yours.

I had a strange dream about this creature last night and it woke me thinking I need to remember it and find out it's meaning. I dreampt I turned into this creature.......I would fall back off to sleep and dream it again and again so there's some kind of meaning hear Symbolical I know because I'm breast feeding my daughter who's 5 months but there has a feel for a more important meaning to the dream so I wanted to find out if such a creature exsisted I knew of cows being sacred in one country. But your information helps too.
Unfortunate for me I feel a pull in two directions today I have to be somewhere of importance yet I feel a need to research this just as important. But I'll come back in later today and see what's added here. Thank you for your help anything else you can think of will be a great help..........

Autumn Clair

[John_Mischief]

In ireland, cows are (or were, at least) considered representations of feminine beauty. They are also associate with Bridget.

I can't find anything about part cow-part humans, however if you google it you find a lot of sites about scientists trying to make hybrid cow people.

[jebido]

In greek mythology Zeus would often take the form of a cow when he was off of Olympus (however most of the time on Earth he would procede in cheating on his wife)

[desolationangel]

Actually, in Ancient Egypt, cows were more the symbol of Hathor, however, when the Greeks appropriated Isis, they gave her more of Hathor's attributes. (I doubt Aset (Isis) was ever relegated to the position of "nature goddess," as She was much more than that, and not even really that, but I digress.)

Hathor (Het-Hert) was very much associated with fertility, art, dance, and motherhood. She had another aspect, however, in Sekhmet, the vengeful Eye of Ra.

There was also the Apis bull, not a cow, obviously, but still bovine, a sacred animal in the city of Memphis and a symbol of Ptah. When it died, it was buried at Saqqara and became aligned with Wesir (Osiris).

[orgtigger]

I believe it's hindu's who consider the cow sacred.

[orgtigger]

And there is that Green Jello song about the sacred cow :)

[orgtigger]

Look at Ariyna 's avatar is that what your looking for?

[IvyWitch]

I believe it's hindu's who consider the cow sacred.
Yeah, no hamburgers for them.

[ravenmyst]

what about the minotaur, not a cow, but a bull.

Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign. He promised to sacrifice the bull as an offering, and as a symbol of subservience. A beautiful white bull rose from the sea, but when Minos saw it, he coveted it for himself. He assumed that Poseidon would not mind, so he kept it and sacrificed the best specimen from his herd instead. When Poseidon learned about the deceit, he made Pasipha, Minos' wife, fall madly in love with the bull. She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a wooden cow for her. Pasipha climbed into the decoy and fooled the white bull. The offspring of their lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur.

The creature had the head and tail of a bull on the body of a man. It caused such terror and destruction on Crete that Daedalus was summoned again, but this time by Minos himself. He ordered the architect to build a gigantic, intricate labyrinth from which escape would be impossible. The Minotaur was captured and locked in the labyrinth. Every year for nine years, seven youths and maidens came as tribute from Athens. These young people were also locked in the labyrinth for the Minotaur to feast upon.

When the Greek hero Theseus reached Athens, he learned of the Minotaur and the sacrifices, and wanted to end this. He volunteered to go to Crete as one of the victims. Upon his arrival in Crete, he met Ariadne, Minos's daughter, who fell in love with him. She promised she would provide the means to escape from the maze if he agreed to marry her. When Theseus did, she gave him a simple ball of thread, which he was to fasten close to the entrance of the maze. He made his way through the maze, while unwinding the thread, and he stumbled upon the sleeping Minotaur. He beat it to death and led the others back to the entrance by following the thread

[mind_of_chaos]

what about the minotaur, not a cow, but a bull.

Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign. He promised to sacrifice the bull as an offering, and as a symbol of subservience. A beautiful white bull rose from the sea, but when Minos saw it, he coveted it for himself. He assumed that Poseidon would not mind, so he kept it and sacrificed the best specimen from his herd instead. When Poseidon learned about the deceit, he made Pasipha, Minos' wife, fall madly in love with the bull. She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a wooden cow for her. Pasipha climbed into the decoy and fooled the white bull. The offspring of their lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur.

The creature had the head and tail of a bull on the body of a man. It caused such terror and destruction on Crete that Daedalus was summoned again, but this time by Minos himself. He ordered the architect to build a gigantic, intricate labyrinth from which escape would be impossible. The Minotaur was captured and locked in the labyrinth. Every year for nine years, seven youths and maidens came as tribute from Athens. These young people were also locked in the labyrinth for the Minotaur to feast upon.

When the Greek hero Theseus reached Athens, he learned of the Minotaur and the sacrifices, and wanted to end this. He volunteered to go to Crete as one of the victims. Upon his arrival in Crete, he met Ariadne, Minos's daughter, who fell in love with him. She promised she would provide the means to escape from the maze if he agreed to marry her. When Theseus did, she gave him a simple ball of thread, which he was to fasten close to the entrance of the maze. He made his way through the maze, while unwinding the thread, and he stumbled upon the sleeping Minotaur. He beat it to death and led the others back to the entrance by following the thread


Thank the gods!!! I was hoping I wasn't the only one that pulled the minotaur up first and foremost when it came to a cross between human and cow!!!

Now as far as worshipping the cow, I hate to break your hearts, but it isn't really worshiped, that's an over exageration by society. here is a link to sum it up:

http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/things/cow.htm

but to sum it up, basically, killing a cow in the hindu religion is the equivalent of tripping a five year old out on acid YOU DON"T UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO IT!!!!

Elephants however, are worshipped in certain parts of the world, and are considered to be the direct decendants of gods. I believe thats in the african jungles, or middle eastern region....

But, cows are continuously referenced as high religious importance, in fact, in the Bible, when Moses left to talk to God, the isrealites made a golden calf and worshiped it.

Greek mythology talks of cows repeatedly, the minotaur is only one of several references, there is also the story of a group of sailors eating the golden cattle of the gods (bad idea!!), and of course the numerous times that Zeus appeared as a bull.

I am sure that many are aware that the bull is even in the zodiac, as Taurus.

really, any one of the Zodiacs is superimposed on every religion that you can think of. This is because, all religions are astrological in their basis, that is why they are either associated with the moon or the sun. but that is a different tangent that I will avoid.

To get back on the topic, no the cow is not a creature that is worshiped (unless you include the incident in the Old Testament Bible) from anything that I can pull up. And yes, there is a cow-man in mythology.

[Lunacie]

Wow, 4.5 year thread bump! :bumpsmili

[David19]

Wow, 4.5 year thread bump! :bumpsmili

There seems to be a lot of that going on!.