588 
COLOSSAL BULLS. 
here, and that we found it had only a single horn, still that 
would be no just ground for affirming that the creature it 
belonged to, must be the monociros of Ctesias. A little recol¬ 
lection of the opinions entertained respecting the bull by certain 
nations of the East, and the ancient Persians amongst others, 
will be sufficient, when connected with its colossal image on the 
stone, to make us apprehend that it was planted here for a 
profounder reason than mere ornament. In Egypt, Syria, and 
India, the animal was worshipped as a divinity. The Indians, 
who adore their gods in symbols, conceived the bull to be the 
best representation of creative energy, and therefore worshipped 
Seeva, the Creator, under its form. The Apis of the Egyptians 
received divine honours from the same reason. The ancient 
Persians peculiarly venerated the bull, from the lessons they had 
learnt of the Chaldean astronomers, of its association with the 
sun when that genial luminary enters the constellation of Taurus ; 
an event which filled the whole nation with joy, as proclaiming 
the approaching renovation of nature ; and the Magi, more clearly 
to impress on the people the regenerating power of this celestial 
conjunction between the divine Mithra and the planetary 
emblem of the animal most useful in replenishing the earth, 
ordered that, on great occasions, the bull should be slain in 
sacrifice to that creative god. But, from this very circumstance 
of its having been made a victim, we learn that, however vene¬ 
rated, it was not regarded as an object of worship itself. From 
first to last, in all its figured appearances on Persian remains, it 
seems a point of some emblematic imagery. In many places of 
these ruins 1 shall have to notice allegorical combinations of men 
and animals, also to speak of animals alone; and the present sta¬ 
tion of the bull stands the first in the range, seeming a very apt 
