Stoicism: The Bull and the Lion

What does this recurring image symbolize for the philosophy?

In Tom Wolfe’s novel, A Man in Full (1998), two of the leading characters become enthusiastic followers of Epictetus’ Stoicism. They are inspired by his references to the image of a strong bull who naturally steps forward to protect the weaker members of the herd from attack by a lion. Indeed, one of the chapters entitled “The Bull and the Lion”, contains the following exchange:

“That’s fine,” said Charlie, “but how do you know what your character is? Let’s say there’s a crisis you’ve got to deal with. How do you know what you’re really made of?” “Epictetus talks about that,” said Conrad, “He says, how does a bull, when a lion’s coming after him, and he has to protect the whole herd – how does he know what powers he’s got? He knows because it has taken him a long time to become powerful. Like the bull, a man doesn’t become heroic all of a sudden, either. Epictetus says, ‘He must train through the winter and make ready.'” — Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full

Epictetus several times employs the image of a strong bull who protects the rest of the herd. However, the symbol of the bull as a leader was not unusual in the ancient world, and had been in use for many centuries. For example, we find it used by Homer to describe the Mycenaean king, Agamemnon:

As when a bull stands out among the herd, preeminent above the rest, for he is leader among the grazing cattle, so was Agamemnon made glorious on that day. — Iliad, 2.480–483

This symbolism is much older even than Homer’s works and appears to have originated in near eastern cultures, where the bull was an important religious symbol associated with kingship. One of the main Phoenician deities, e.g., was the Canaanite storm god, Baal, who was often symbolized by a bull.

Curiously, in Greek mythology, Zeus, a storm god like Baal, assumes the form of a bull in order to abduct Europa, a Phoenician princess, from the city of Tyre. Zeus takes Europa to Crete where she gives birth to a child who goes on to become King Minos, the founder of the Minoan civilization, which was, of course, steeped in the symbolism of the bull. This legend seems to evoke the idea of Greek civilization appropriating aspects of near eastern culture.

The Europa myth might also remind us of the origins of Stoicism itself, as Zeno, its founder, was a Phoenician, who found himself in Athens, a Greek city. There is some evidence that Zeno employed the metaphor of a herd of cattle to describe the ideal Stoic community in the Republic, which was quite possibly the founding text of Stoicism. For example, according to Plutarch:

Indeed, the much-admired Republic of Zeno, the one who founded the Stoic school of thought, comes down to this one main point: that we should not live divided according to cities or demes, each defined by our own separate laws, but instead, we should consider all humans to be our fellow-demesmen and citizens, observing one shared way of life and one kind of social order, like a herd that grazes together with equal right in a common pasture. Zeno wrote this, envisioning, as if in a dream, a certain model of civic order and the image of a philosophical commonwealth. — Plutarch, On the Fortune of Alexander, 329A-C

This suggests that Zeno may have introduced the metaphor of the ideal Stoic Republic as consisting of a herd of cattle led by a bull. Indeed, the early Stoic school itself was a small community perhaps intended to be modelled on this ideal to some extent, so Zeno himself, or the subsequent scholarchs of the school, may have been seen as analogous to the bull in this imagery.

Late Minoan bull statuette, courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.

The Bull in Roman Stoicism

Two centuries later, in the Roman Republic, Cicero portrays the Stoic Cato employing the bull as a metaphor for leadership instincts in his account of Stoic Ethics:

Nature has given bulls the instinct to defend their calves against lions with immense passion and force. In the same way, those with great talent and the capacity for achievement, as is said of Hercules and Liber, have a natural inclination to help the human race. — De Finibus, Book III

Curiously, a few generations later, in the Roman Empire, Seneca also says something quite similar, perhaps shedding light on the original meaning of the metaphor in Stoicism:

But the earliest mortals and those of their descendants who pursued nature without being spoiled shared the same guide and law, being entrusted to the decisions of a superiors, since it is natural for inferior things to give way to more powerful ones. Take herds of dumb animals: either the biggest or the strongest creatures have command. It is not the bull inferior to his breeding but the one who surpasses the other males in size and muscle who goes before the herds; it is the tallest elephant who leads the troupe; among men, “the best” replaces “the biggest”. So the ruler used to be chosen for his intellect, and the greatest happiness among nations was enjoyed by those among whom only the superior man could be more powerful. A man can safely enjoy as much power as he wishes if he believes he only has power to act as he should. — Seneca, Letters, 90

Seneca also briefly employs this image in his play Phaedra, when he writes: “Goaded on by love, the bold bull undertakes battle for the whole herd.”

Shortly after this, we find some of the most intriguing Stoic references to this bull imagery in Epictetus. Although cattle in general are sometimes looked down upon in the Discourses, the bull is several times used by Epictetus as a metaphor for an exceptionally good man, i.e., the ideal Stoic wise man or Sage:

It was asked, How shall each of us perceive what belongs to his character? Whence, replied Epictetus, does a bull, when the lion approaches, alone recognize his own qualifications, and expose himself alone for the whole herd? It is evident that with the qualifications occurs, at the same time, the consciousness of being imbued with them. And in the same manner, whoever of us hath such qualifications will not be ignorant of them. But neither is a bull nor a gallant-spirited man formed all at once. We are to exercise, and qualify ourselves, and not to run rashly upon what doth not concern us. — Discourses, 1

Here one ought nobly to say, “I am he who ought to take care of mankind.” For it is not every little paltry heifer that dares resist the lion; but if the bull should come up, and resist him, would you say to him, “Who are you? What business is it of yours?” In every species, man, there is some one quality which by nature excels, – in oxen, in dogs, in bees, in horses. Do not say to whatever excels, “Who are you?” If you do, it will, somehow or other, find a voice to tell you, “I am like the purple thread in a garment. Do not expect me to be like the rest; nor find fault with my nature, which has distinguished me from others.” — Discourses, 3

You are a calf; when the lion appears, act accordingly, or you will suffer for it. You are a bull; come and fight; for that is incumbent on you and becomes you, and you can do it. — Discourses, 3

The bull is also clearly equated with the “good man” in the passage below, a synonym for the Sage, and the metaphor of a hunting dog is employed in a similar manner:

For who that is charged with such principles, but must perceive, too, his own powers, and strive to put them in practice. Not even a bull is ignorant of his own powers, when any wild beast approaches the herd, nor waits he for any one to encourage him; nor does a dog when he spies any game. And if I have the powers of a good man, shall I wait for you to qualify me for my own proper actions? — Discourses, 4

In another passage he employs a similar metaphor, equating the role of the bull with that of the queen bee:

But what have you to do with the concerns of others? For what are you? Are you the bull in the herd, or the queen of the bees? Show me such ensigns of empire as she has from nature. But if you are a drone, and arrogate to yourself the kingdom of the bees, do you not think that your fellow-citizens will drive you out, just as the bees do the drones? — Discourses, 3

Marcus Aurelius, who had read the Discourses, perhaps even the four books lost today, mentions a similar metaphor, which he extends to the ram who guards the flock of sheep:

If any have offended against thee, consider first: What is my relation to men, and that we are made for one another; and in another respect, I was made to be set over them, as a ram over the flock or a bull over the herd. — Meditations

Conclusion

The Stoics, as we have seen, were probably drawing upon symbolism that originated in early near eastern civilizations. The image of the bull as leader might seem straightforward but Epictetus, in particular, develops it by asking his students to contemplate how the bull knows that he is, unlike the calves and heifers, capable of defending the herd by tossing a lion on his horns. The answer is that he has learned his own strengths and weaknesses through trial and error, just as a boxer or wrestler knows approximately which opponents are a good match for him, based on his previous experience. He puts himself to the test repeatedly, and thereby forms a clear impression of his own capabilities. We must do this for ourselves, in order to know which challenges in life we are capable of meeting.