DISPUTE MEDIATOR EL TORO AND THE WORLD FUNERAL - II Los ritos funerarios que relatamos en el capítulo anterior, no solo eran conocidos y practicados por los egipcios y otros pueblos de África, sino también en la India e Indonesia donde aún se practican.
En esas zonas, era creencia general que el Toro negro era asimilado al mundo inferior y por tanto relacionado con la muerte. Incluso en los países lejanos donde llegó el influjo de la India, que participan de dichas creencias como Java y Bali, se acostumbra a poner los féretros of princes in coffins shaped like a bull for incineration.
behavior and attitudes toward the death of the Mesopotamian peoples are known through myths and epics that have survived. In general did not believe in an afterlife and resigns himself to death as natural. Although the exception is found in the myth of Gilgamesh, not only by the rabid anger after the death of his friend Enkidu, but mainly when it goes in search of immortality, which leads him to meet with the Sumerian Noah, Utnapishtim
, who reveals the secret place where a plant grows underwater to free him from death. Although happiness and joy, as always, is very short, because after having found it is taken away by a snake episode striking parallels with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, after the temptation of the serpent, who also lost immortality.
In these areas washed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the biblical Garden of Eden, burials were made, usually longer than the royal tombs of later times, in the home of the deceased, whose body was deposited under the floor of the house, along with all their belongings. In Mesopotamia there was no public cemeteries.
The general belief on the corpses unburied, for refusing burial offerings and related family members, became restless spirits wandering disoriented and could cause great evil to the living. (1)
in Bali (the island tourist destination in Indonesia) is currently celebrating rites funeral among the components of the tribe of the Toraja, introduced from India in the eleventh century and currently in use. The ritual itself consists of shrouding the deceased in a white shroud and wrapped in a mat of palm leaves tied tightly. Shoulders of their family is placed in a tomb, richly adorned, which is carried by those closest to him in solemn procession to the place where it should be incinerated. The tumultuous procession carrying the mound, a ceremony which seeks to invite all the villagers, is preceded all the way through the image of a bull richly decorated and adorned, in some cases the ornaments are gold leaf. The aforementioned bull is not nothing but a wooden coffin in the shape of the animal totem and carried by a large number of porters.
Before leaving the court of the town are three laps of the deceased, so that "his soul
become disoriented" and can not return to the house where he lived, since it would never reach the sky, is your destiny and their relatives would not live in peace.
Upon arrival at the place of cremation, the back of the bull-open coffin and the corpse is placed inside. The priest proceeds to cut the ties linking the palm mat to release the soul of the deceased and it can reach the sky. Then pour holy water over her remains, collection and deposit the sacred sources inside various meats, along with a lotus flower, which will serve as support in the journey to the heights. Before closing the coffin, the priest introduces a bamboo shoot as a symbol of the resurrection of the soul, then setting fire to the funeral pyre. Once consumed it, the ashes are collected in bowls of coconut and scattered to the wind, facing the sea.
addition to the use of the sarcophagus-bull, in this instance, the caste of Brahmins, Dalits use the winged lion, elephant or fish. (2)
Returning to the Mediterranean basin found other Hittite customs in Turkey, especially in the royal necropolis Höyük ALAC, which was in use from 2,300 to 2,100 BC, where they lay on the graves, as victims ritual banquet funeral, the skulls and feet of bulls slaughtered after being consumed in a ritual feast.
Among the findings in the graves of ALAC, deserve specific mention some figures of animals, mainly bulls, deer, at which time they were very frequent Rythones animal shapes.
In contrast, among the common people's places of worship are in the same houses, where they buried their ancestors and held ritual ceremonies of apparent parallels with the Mesopotamian traditions. (3)
In "
Tomb of Lord of the Goats " (1750-1700 BC) of Ebla (now Tell Mardikh, which means "White Rock
"), we found a talisman bone collected in one of its faces a sacred meal with a character before an offering table, attended by servants and two totally naked figures.
The other side shows the scene of the worship of a bull by baboons (primates or with a head resembling that of the dog) in front of two naked figures. According to the Ugaritic texts, the Bull would be the figuration of the soul of the deceased and the two characters bare their first children. Çatalhöyük Some tombs are decorated with unique wall paintings, relief figures on the walls, benches, pillars with bull horns and modeled heads.
in Maikop, capital of the Republic of Adygea in the north of the Caucasus mountains, in the Kuban valley (the land of the Cossacks), eastern Black Sea, was found a burial mound of a chief, where the canopy that covered his body was supported by four legs, inserted in the center of the bodies of as many gold bulls
m 
acizos. One of the vessels
funerary 
l is decorated with carvings of bulls in profile. (4)
The presence of the bull in the Egyptian funerary rites and was described extensively in the previous chapter. However, it should be noted the case of the cow goddess Hathor (goddess of love, music, beauty and protector of women giving birth), which met the deceased at the entrance to the underworld.
The name of this goddess were associated with those known as "
Seven Hathor "considered as daughters of the goddess and sometimes as"
seven fairies "who were those who decided the fate of the deceased after rebirth in the afterlife and those responsible for providing food and drink to the deceased (whose formula is recorded in chapter CXLVIII Book of the Dead). These "seven Hathor
" were represented in the tombs in the form of beef and accompanied by a bull, known as "Bull of the West
" and "Lord of Eternity
" (titles held by Osiris, the god of deceased), and four oars, symbolizing the four cardinal.
A beautiful recreation of the seven cows can view it in the tomb of Queen Nefertari (
By the sun shines, "the most beautiful title owned), the" Great Royal Wife
"of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC). Cows in Egypt embodied the concept of fertility, while fertilizing the bull that goes with it is the herald of the gods, symbolizing fertility and
d land, power and power seeder. (5)
In Greece cattle, standing or lying down, watched the dream of the dead in the cemeteries of Athens, from classical times onwards. In the Mycenaean tombs were found bones of animals such as cattle, sheep and goats. The slaughter of cattle at funerals seems to have been banned at the time of Solon (640-558 BC) one of the seven sages of Greece and Plato's uncle.
in Cyprus have also found bones of oxen in the tombs found in Politik, showing the relationship of the bull with the deceased.
bulls in Crete had a special religious significance in
Minoan era, as evidenced by the fact that kings bury their heads in the company of these animals, whose horns gave a careful gold plating.
In the Greek and Cretan there was a great belief that the body of the dead bulls bred bees, showing the generative power of life of this animal, as the Greek historian tells Antigonus of Karystos (third century BC) "
In Egypt, if you bury an ox in certain places, so just leave the land the horns, and then the mountains, they say that bees fly out, as the ox and becomes putrifica bees" .
Ovid relates in Fasti 1, 393, lost Aristeo combs, "
Lord of honey, and how to retrieve other swarms following the advice of Proteus consisting in: "...
bury the corpse of a dead ox, and that he would get what he wanted, because when the body disappear, emerge from the swarm of bees . (3)
This passage also tells Virgil, Georgics, Book IV [295] 445, how to get bees from the corpse of a two-year bull "... Site narrow your order off is chosen, and closes with a shed roof and four walls close. Four windows to the four winds of them open, with oblique light. A steer is sought in the front curved horns take two years, and, rather than resist, he stitched mouth and nose without letting breath. A shock is killed, the interior bruising under the skin intact. That ground is left in the closed chamber then lying on ramojo thyme and daphne (referring to the laurel, who personified the nymph Daphne) freshly cut ... The humor while the ground is heated in simmering bones and strange swarm of critters is ant explode in vivid, with no legs at first, then winged flight stirs strident. .. "
Later in the same work, Georgics, Book IV, [550] 810, tells of the sacrifice that must Aristeo Orpheus, on the recommendation of Cyrene and Proteus force to remedy their misery, having lost all his property, especially hives, "he Meets maternal order without delay: He comes to the shrine, arranged the altar, takes the four burly bull of the most beautiful appearance and heifers that have not proven yoke. The first ray of dawn ninth gives Orpheus the funeral tribute and returns to the forest. And there, the sudden wonder: in the putrid flesh of bulls buzzing bees, the open sides seem to boil, and a huge cloud to little bursts, as in the whole swirling nearby tree, and branches left hanging in the end cluster splendid. " (10)
Long before the existence of Greece, we find documented the existence of such a belief in the biblical world precisely the period of the Judges of Israel (period covered since the death of Joshua to the emergence of the prophet Samuel), particularly in times of Samson (one of the last judges, XII century BC), whose story appears in the passage in which, after slaughter the lion with his bare hands, a few days later found a swarm of bees in the body of the lion: "
Later, down to marry her (with Timna, the Philistines), deviated
to see the carcass of the lion, and saw there was a swarm of bees with honey in the carcass of the lion ... "(Judges 14.8). Apparently it seems that the passage does not reflect clear that the body of the lion emerged bees, yet these beliefs are ratified in the puzzle that, later, the Philistines Samson poses during the engagement, "
He told them:" From you eat what you eat out , and the strong, sweetness . " (Judges 14:14) (6)
Another curious case in which the bull's death serves as a generator of life, in this case human life, is the following legend: "Hire
was a bee keeper. One day Zeus and Hermes came to him asking for his hospitality. This request was granted with a wealth of attention, and the gods to leave, to reward, he was asked to perform some desire, what Hire replied that his greatest dream would be to have a child but could not because they are older. Then the gods told him to kill a bull, wet your skin and bury in the grave of his wife. After nine months, emerged from the earth a wonderful child, Orion, who was regarded as the messenger of spring and summer rains . (3)
Again, as we see, the pair repeated death and resurrection in which transit through the funeral world, comes a new being, new life, with essential involvement of the bull as a generator of life par excellence.
granted to The Etruscan bull mission as guardian of eternal sleep. Proof of this is found in the "
Tomb of the Bulls" at Tarquinia, whose entrance is flanked by two bulls paintings seated and a third position ithyphallic that charges against a naked couple (7).
island cultures of the Mediterranean prehistory, buried their dead in the womb-like hypogea. In the living Sardinian (Sardinia) shows numerous cattle prótomos bucráneos and carved on the walls of the entrance of the tombs, dated to between 3,000 and 1,500 BC Anatolian clearly influenced.
The "
Mare Nostrum "was the vehicle horn developed the ancient Mediterranean cultures, whose influence permeated our Iberian peninsula through the various invasions that we support. Taurine statuary took a new dimension here, joining art and ideologically, to exist throughout the area.
also flows funerary culture found in our Peninsula a
r 
esonancia and incidence permanent. The cult of Serapis (Egyptian funeral bull) penetrated at least from the s.II BC, extending points as Astorga, Valencia, Gerona (Ampurias) etc. and it is not surprising that presence of the bull in the tragic events also might enjoy a significant presence in the Balearic, where the practice of burial in sarcophagi tauromorfos, as evidenced by the findings of sarcophagi discovered in the shelter of the Punta Avenç (Mallorca), between 500 - 100 BC, showing the view that the sarcophagus would have a significant Tauric belly surround some nameless goddess, a possible link with the Egyptian world. (8)
The many sculptures of bulls found in the Levant area and Andalusia, have been associated with funerary rites. The bulls found in a seated position or in a threatening manner, are related with the deceased and placed above
d pillars and plinths, as found in the necropolis of the ravine Coimbra Width (Jumilla, Murcia), in other cases the graves were decorated with bulls lying down, as the case of Osuna ( Seville) or the El Molar (Alicante). (3)
was common practice of sacrifices funeral or Silicernium
"which meant the ending banquet in ancient times, lasted nine days and funerals. As expected
er the slain victim was the bull.
In line with the presence funeral bull may be associated with some of the boars tauromorfos known, according to the Latin inscriptions carved on the pedestals or on their backs, which contained the name of the deceased. It is also significant to outline the abundance of tombstones, in which alternate, opposite the name and profession of the deceased, astral signs with images of cattle, commonly used from the people Celtiberian until after the Roman conquest. Significant are the known " Stelae " of Clunia, or the Burrutia Atilia, daughter of Viriato warrior at the Museum of Navarra, the province of Soria. (3)
That influence and presence of the bull in the funerary not necessarily end the last two thousand years as it may seem, it comes down to our days in our Peninsula. In this regard, in some places involved in the funeral wearing a number of bread stuck on the horns, which could be rescued by a sum of money, in fierce struggle between those attending the match. This practice was deeply rooted in the Basque Country.
this regard and regional opposition of the clergy was achieved that in 1771, the Council of Castilla dictating a Royal Provision by which this practice was prohibited "indecent ," although, as usual, did not take effect one, since the early twentieth century were still celebrating such rituals. That
physical presence of bulls at funerals as a symbol of support and protection provided to the deceased in the journey that should go in the afterlife, told by Julio Caro Baroja with some variation and it is supposed changed over time "... In the early twentieth century, he says, in some towns of Guipuzcoa, at significant burial was taken as an offering to the parish an ox, which was adorned with black cloth, tassels at the neck and a loaf of four pounds on each horn, and had to be rescued by a fixed sum . "
also in other parts of Spain were performed similar customs, as in the capital of Asturias Pelayo: " in the eighteenth century in Oviedo, in the convent of San Francisco, where he was the cemetery of the Marquises of Valdecarzana, which was the customary practice in Day of the Dead, after making an offering of bread on the high altar, singing a Mass and prayed at the time of the dirge in the crypt, not precede or other external cross the servants introduced a live cow that stood leaning while sang. "(9)
Many more stories are in the historical records of many other societies, like those reported, made lavish ceremonial funeral. Depending the geographical situation of each society, it is obvious that the rituals differ in regard to beliefs, customs or economic availability of the family of the deceased. But in all the common denominator was the importance of the offerings, ensuring all of them offer the deceased, the ritual meal, the animal most economic value could be acquired.
With the account in these two chapters has been attested enough the importance and presence in the "bos primigenium" in the funeral world, as a companion and protector of the deceased, in this uncertain journey to the far return to the afterlife.
Plácido González Hermoso.
REFERENCES 1 .- Henrietta McCall, "Mesopotamian Myths, Ed.Akal
2 .- Canal + Odyssey festival of Agama Tirtha (Bali) 3 .- Cristina Delgado
Linacero" The bull in the Mediterranean "
4 .- Joaquín Córdoba Zoilo, History 16, No. 6, "Tales from the Old World" Champdor
5 .- Albert, "The Egyptian Book of the dead" 6 .- Bible
Nacar-Colunga, BAC
7 .- José María Blázquez, "Image and Myth
8 .-" El Toro and the Mediterranean ", Caja Duero Exhibition, March-May 2001
9 .- Julio Caro Baroja," the summer holiday " 10 .-
Publio Virgilio Maron, Complete Works .- Georgics, Book IV
Being a product of capitalism and service industry is trying to extend their products to everyone. The most important thing for the system is that most people become irrational consumers. Every time there are more goods and cheaper it is necessary to sell to be profitable. Society is overproduction. 
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esonancia and incidence 
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