Bullfighters
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DM
Thu, Feb 15, 2:37 AM
to me
Was in a university library looking for old books to hit up on archive.org later, came across this:
It's a multi-volume "bible of the bull" and shit, I'll probably use it to teach myself Spanish if I ever get around to that. But looking up some matador videos, are these guys basically the gods of blade-killing in the 21st century? Ideally a matador is supposed to kill this huge, charging bull in its prime, bred & selected for aggression and power, with one stab.
I know nothing about bullfighting.
Yes, these are the only men who still kill with swords.
The sword is 'The Queen of Weapons' used for dispatching men beaten with arrow, lance and spear.
our Neanderthal fathers [Mom's rapist is still your dad] had 51% of their diet as auroch according to bone tests.
See Burton's Book of the Sword.
The ancient Minoans practiced bull leaping [see my book the First Boxers].
The most popular combatant in the arena of ancient Rome was the beastiarius, who fought animals and provided the only meat a mobster was likely to eat.
See Sorrows of the Ancient Romans, author forgotten.
The doomed bulls are the luckiest of their kind, other than the rodeo bull who is rated as an athlete and worth more than the rider.
In both sports, assistants are required to harry the beast so that the hero may do his work, a lesson that is overlooked.
Thank you for reading.
To add on to James' comment about the sword being used to dispatch an opponent who has already been weakened by the spear this is equally aplicable to bullfighting. I've been lucky enough to see several bullfight in Mexico and the event is divided into multiple parts. Most notably the matador comes in to give the killing blow only after picadores (lance wielding men on horseback) and banderilleros (footman wielding two short thrusting spears) have already been wounding the animal in two earlier distinct parts of the ceremony. The death thrust with the sword going between the shoulder blades of the bull and into the heart is only done after the animal has already fought a very hard battle.
These aren't heroes. They're a bunch of pussies that taunt, torture and eventually kill a bull. Go up against an equal man that is also armed with a sword and we can talk.