Bull-leaping
（重定向自Taurokathapsia）
![The Bull-Leaping Fresco from the Great Palace at Knossos, Crete](/Images/godic/202502/15/Bull-leaping3318.jpg")
![The bull-leaper, an ivory figurine from the palace of Knossos, Crete. The only complete surviving figure of a larger arrangement of figures. This is the earliest three dimensional representation of the bull leap. It is assumed that thin gold pins were used to suspend the figure over a bull.](/Images/godic/202502/15/The_Bull_Leaper_Knossos_1500BC3318.jpg")
![The Minoan Bull-leaper sculpture at the British Museum.](/Images/godic/202502/15/Minoan_Bull-leaper3318.jpg")
![The Speed and Daring of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring of Madrid (1815-16). Etching and aquatint by Francisco de Goya.](/Images/godic/202502/15/Goya_Tauromachia43318.jpg")
Bull-leaping (also taurokathapsia, from Greek ταυροκαθάψια) is a motif of Middle Bronze Age figurative art, notably of Minoan Crete, but also found in Hittite Anatolia, the Levant, Bactria and the Indus Valley. It is often interpreted as a depiction of a ritual performed in connection with bull worship. This ritual consists of an acrobatic leap over a bull; when the leaper grasps the bull's horns, the bull will violently jerk his neck upwards giving the leaper the momentum necessary to perform somersaults and other acrobatic tricks or stunts.