Cows represent the All-good. The image of fruits of nature emerging from a cow's horn -- a horn of plenty -- is tied to the Cow of Plenty of Indian mythology, whose name is Surabhi. She belonged to the Vedic sage, Vasishtha.
Kamadhenu is the sacred cow as she relates to Hindu ritual. Her 5 gifts are sacred offerings. They are: milk, curds (yoghurt,) butter, urine (considered a pure substance that can serve as medicine,) and manure (which is used for plastering walls and floors, and which, dried, is used as fuel.) She also gives us a further gift, her offspring -- a calf, the source of further cattle.
In the Himalayan tradition, butter is sculpted to make offerings such as tormas, and it also provides the oil that fuels butterlamps.
Ghee, clarified butter, is the very essence of cow. As such, it is the substance that, in India, is used to bath sacred images.
Classification of Chinese Buddhist scripture (p'an-chiao) owes a debt to Chih-i (538-597), who thought Dharma could be understood in terms of successive stages of refinement, similar to the way ghee is produced from milk:
Just as milk derives from a cow, cream derives from milk, butter derives from cream, melted butter derives from butter, and ghee derives from melted butter, so the twelve divisions of the canon derive from the Buddha, the sutras derive from the twelve divisions of the canon, the extended sutras derive from the sutras, the Perfection of Wisdom derives from the extended sutras, and nirvana, which is like ghee, derives from the Perfection of Wisdom. ~ Quoted by Peter Gregory.
Hindu deity, Lord Vishnu, in his avatar or active form as Krishna, is called Govinda and Gopala: "the cow-finder" and "cow-protector." These epithets are references to his existence in Vrindavan as a herdsman. This is metaphorical in the same way that King David (The Bible: Old Testament. Psalm 23) sang, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." From the viewpoint of a devotee of Krishna the Cowherd, the cosmic cow is seen as incorporating all deities.
Cow = Wealth
The Maasai of East Africa, who live off the milk and blood of their prized cattle are frequently heard to make the claim that all the world's cattle actually belong to them. If that is so, then they once were rich beyond belief, for there is evidence to show that cows were the world's first "portable" wealth.
Once, the world was divided into those who kept wealth in the form of cattle, and those who did not. Herders of sheep and goats were considered by the cattle-rich, as somewhat inferior. On the other hand, the Greeks and the Romans looked down on all those who used butter instead of olive or other vegetable oil.
The English word chattel meaning possessions derives from capital ( < caput = head.) It further evolved into cattle, the collective word for cow. In other words, especially in lands where the Romans left their imprint, cattle means wealth. And in many other cultures, besides.
There is a motif in the mythology of the world known as "cattle-raiding." In classical mythology, Hermes the Trickster steals the cattle of the sun. One of the most famous Irish tales (c. 1100 CE) is The Cattle Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge).
Heavenly Cow
In Indian folktales, Dhol is the name of a white cow that holds the earth between her horns. And we know the Indian cow has been protected for millennia for the economic reasons this symbolism expresses. A less direct symbolism is expressed by the fact that the white cow is "the vehicle" of Goddess Parvati.
In ancient Egypt, there were a number of cow deities. Nut, the sky goddess emanates as Mehueret, the Flood. Another is Hesat and milk was referred to as "beer of Hesat.'" The Egyptian goddess of fertility, Bata, was depicted as a cow, or as a human with the ears and horns of a cow. She was a deity of Upper Egypt (Sudan.) Even today, that part of the world has a special relationship with cows. The Masai of East Africa consider that all the cattle in the world belong to them.
Cow-horned Hathor, daughter of Ra, is another Egyptian goddess associated with the heavens. The Celestial Cow, who carries the sun's disc between her horns, she is later portrayed as a slender woman wearing the horns. As "Eye of Ra" she transforms into avenging Sekhmet -- lion-headed death deity, goddess of war and pestilence -- to punish humans for their transgressions. She nearly wipes out all mankind before Ra manages to arrest her activity by getting her drunk with beer that had been colored to look like blood so that she once again becomes benevolent.
Europe
Europa was a once a Phoenician maiden whom Zeus desired. Jealous Hera turned her into a white cow and chased her towards the west, the region that today bears her name.
Indo-europeans carried the notion of a cosmic cow with them to northern Europe, for in the mythology of the Eddas, Audhumla ("Without Impurity") was the creator of humankind. From a stone, she licked Man into being over a period of three days. She was created from ice-melt at the beginning of time, and preserves herself while sustaining the status quo by licking the salt and hoar frost which would otherwise build up on Niflheim, abode of the gods. The titans or Ymir feed on her milk.
In southern Gaul, Damona was the name of this cow who exists in relation to the waters of the earth. The ultimate food was the milk of such a cow. Ethne is an Irish goddess, who subsists on milk from a sacred cow.
The Basques had a special relation with the cow. They used to worship Mari at her sacred caves or "houses of Mari." It is believed that her guardian, a fiery-eyed, red-haired cow (or bull?) Beigorri, may occasionally be seen there still. It is this animal that is painted on the walls of the sacred caves, many of which contain evidence of occupation from over 20,000 years ago.
Wordplay
Cattle (kine is an archaic English word) are grouped into herds that consist of cows, heifers and calves. To control breeding, bulls are kept apart. Steers are castrated bulls that are raised for meat. Non-agricultural people do not seem to know what an ox is, nor the relation between oxen and steers. An ox is a powerful draught animal and a young one is known as a bullock.
The flat wildflower with a yellow centre is called an ox-eye daisy, and a person who is gazing longingly at a loved one is said to be "making calf eyes."
Bovine is an adjective derived from the Latin bos. Yes, boss.
Gentle
The cow epitomized gentleness and appears in The Bible as the opposite of the fierce predators. Isaiah XI, 6-7:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them, 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The Bull
Taurus is today the second constellation in the Western hemisphere, in the spring. Many different cultures have seen the red-eyed bust of a bull in the arrangement of stars, and the notion of a Bull of Heaven is very ancient.
In a way, it is the opposite of the heavenly cow, for in Mesopotamian myth, it was the embodiment of a terrible drought created by Anu for the goddess Ishtar.
The Mediterranean island of Crete was the legendary home of the Minotaur -- a bull-headed monster according to the Greeks, but archaeologists of the 19th century revealed a misunderstanding. Ancient Cretan culture is called Minoan after Minos, the legendary ruler of the island. The largest building on the site was found by Sir Arthur Evans to be extremely complex in its layout -- a veritable maze. Add to these two facts the discovery of the emblem of the Minoans, a double-headed axe or labrys (not unlike a flattened dorje) that was found carved into stone pillars and we have a Laby-rinth and a Mino-taur.
The Minoans did have a sacred relationship with the bull, and bull-leaping youths depicted on the walls of the palace at Knossos indicate some elaborate ritual associated with it. This involved dancing or tumbling between the sharp horns of unrestrained bulls. Horned altar stones similar to contemporary abstract sculptural pieces were also found there.
Sadly, other aspects of this seem to have a root in reality. Legend has it that offerings of youths were made regularly to the Minotaur, and indeed human remains were recently found that indicate the intentional butchering of human beings.
As a punishment for murder, the step-child of Hera [Hera-cles] was condemned to a series of trials or labours by King Eurystheus,. The seventh was to capture the fierce marauding bull of Crete who some say was Zeus himself in his role as the shape-shifting trickster that carried off the Phoenician maiden, Europa. It is more likely that the ferocious beast had been the animal lover of the queen of Crete, for when King Minos insulted Poseidon, that god avenged himself by inducing in the Queen , a near-deadly lust for a bull.
According to the Greeks, this relation engendered the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster who was kept in a "labyrinth" and to whom the youths of the land were sacrificed.
Later, Herakles made a lasso, and chasing the beast until it weakened, finally succeeding in throwing the lasso over the bull's head. Having pacified the beast, Heracles leapt on its back and rode it across the sea back to the Peloponese. He presented it to Eurystheus, who thought to sacrifice it to Hera, queen of heaven. But Hera continued to bear a grudge against the hero who, through no fault of his was the offspring of her husband Zeus and the earthly woman Alcmene. She refused the offering, and so the bull was released to run wild in Greece.
While serving in Persia, the Romans encountered the cult of Mithras, Sol Invictis, Mithras stabbing the Bull of Darkness.vanquisher of the Bull, and that religion became exceedingly popular among legionnaires of the Empire stationed everywhere.
They prayed, "Spirit of Spirit, if it be your will, lend me immortal life so that I may be reborn, and the sacred spirit breathe in me again."
Mithras vanquishing the Bull of Darkness with his dagger, though originally a Persian image, became characteristically Roman.
Mithraism vied in popularity with Christianity to the extent that several of the important aspects of its mythology were assimilated to Christianity by the late 4th century. One of these is the important date of 25th December, the winter solstice which marks the birth of the Lord of Light, who is essentially a solar deity. It was customary to mark the day with gift-giving. Mithras can also be said to have been born of a virgin, and to have lived among shepherds. His priests were the Magi.
Shiva
Nandi means joyous. Nandi the Bull is the vahana (vehicle) of Shiva. However in ancient times, there was worshipped the Lord of Joy (Nandikeshvara), who was depicted as a man with a bull's head.
The bull is also the emblem of Adinath, the first Jain tirthankara.
In South India, on the north shore of the Cauvery, is the Hindu temple called Vallalar Koil that is sacred to Shiva as Sri Vadhanyeshwar. At this shrine, Parvati his consort is called Gnanambika (Wisdom Mother.) At this place is the shrine of a yogi, Sri Medha Dakshinamurti. He is depicted under a banyan tree but somewhat surprisingly he is seated on Nandi, Shiva's bull.
The bull, a symbol of male sexuality, is the driving force of attainment in many symbolic systems. Consider Zeus, sky god of the Greeks who, in the form of a white bull, unrelentingly pursues Europa. It may be that the prototype of that myth is the Indian cosmogony in which the First Being, Purusha, out of loneliness, splits into two aspects, male and female. The female, aware that the two are brother and sister, out of shame assumes the form of a cow and flees her brother's advances. Accordingly, he becomes a bull, so she eludes him by becoming a mare. No matter what form she assumes, he changes to correspond, and so all the various animals of creation are born.
Ox
If, as we have seen, the cow stands for wealth, then the ox stands for work.
Any castrated male animal of the cattle family, especially if it is to be used for hauling logs, a cart or a plow, can be called an ox. The plural of ox is oxen, one of the few English words still in current use that retains the ancient ending in its plural form.
The Golden Calf
In the most ancient Indian texts, the Vedas:
Wise poets have spun a seven-strand tale around this heavenly calf, the Sun.
~ Dirghatama Rishi, Rig Veda 1.164.5
In Genesis 32 we learn how Aaron the princely brother of Moses decided that it would benefit the wandering Israelites to have a visible, tangible representation. He (24) . . . told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' and "Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" It is as if the bits of gold cohered of themselves to form the calf -- the ultimate symbol of prosperity.
Later (Deuteronomy 9: 21) we find that Moses " took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then . . . crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain."
Of all the Israelites, the descendants of Levi were the only sept (sub-clan) that remained true to the-god-without-form, and so they had the duty and the honour of being attendants at the temple in Jerusalem where the sacred Ark of the Covenant was later installed.
Source: http://www.khandro.net/animal_cow_bull.htm
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