All over the ancient Middle East we find reference to the bull which is used as a symbol of strength and fertility, as well as to bull gods. El, the supreme deity of the decadent Canaanite pantheon, was often called the Bull El (he was a fertility god). Baal, the god of fertility, storms, rain, and vegetation, is also called the Bull.

Similarly among the Hittites, Aramaeans, and Babylonians, the bull gods were a dominant feature of their religions, not to mention the many bull and calf-cults linked closely to the Egyptian god Horus. Cattle cults among the Cushite peoples of Ethiopia and India may be found to this day! In Mithraism, bull worship was an important aspect of their beliefs.

Present day! 2011

A political facelift in Europe’s troubled south, following the appointment of technocrat-led governments in Italy and Greece and a pending election in Spain, will likely help shape the next phase of the euro-zone debt crisis against a backdrop of spiraling borrowing costs and continued policy uncertainty.

Spain has crept back up the crisis agenda as Sunday’s national elections have zoomed into view, sending yields on its government bonds sharply higher. So too has France due to its heavy banking exposure to heavily indebted Italy, and a new emergency government headed by former European Union Commissioner Mario Monti.

In Greece, where it all began, a new government headed by former ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos has to move quickly to shore up the country’s deteriorating finances to qualify for European aid even as the country enters an ever-deeper recession.

This entry was posted on November 18, 2011 at 3:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.