Bull-leaping was a key ritual in the religion of the Minoan civilization on Bronze Age Crete. As in the case of other Mediterranean civilizations, the bull was the subject of veneration and worship (see Bull (mythology) for more). The Minoans regarded the bull as a manifestation of the god Poteidan, the most powerful god in the Minoan pantheon. They were renowned for their reverance of the bull, as the legend of the Minotaur illustrates, and practised a dangerous and acrobatic ritual of vaulting over the horns of bulls. This practice is widely depicted in frescos and ceramics found at and around the palace of Knossos, the legendary home of King Minos, for whom archaeologists named the entire civilization.

Minoan artworks depict the ritual as involving a team of bull-dancers, bull-grapplers and bull-leapers. The first group would distract the bull and entertain the crowd by performing athletic feats on the paved court where the event was held. Bull-grapplers would make the bull lower its horns to prepare it for the bull-leapers, who would either dive between the horns and land on the bull's back hands first, or would grasp the horns and use them as levers to catapult themselves into a standing position on the bull's back. They would then jump or flip lengthways over the body of the bull to land feet-first on the ground.

The most famous depiction of this activity comes from the Great Palace at Knossos, in the form of a fresco of the 17th-15th centuries BC (shown above right). The red figure is probably male and the white figures female - assuming that the usual Minoan colour convention was followed in this instance. The fresco survived in only fragmentary condition, so much of what is shown is a reconstruction.

Although many details of bull-leaping are still unclear, it seems likely that it was a rite of passage undergone by young Minoans of both sexes to achieve higher status. The performers are often depicted as naked or nearly naked but with elaborate decoration and hairstyles indicative of noble status. The ritual is believed to have been a way of symbolising the interwoven destinies of humans and the bull-god.

There has been considerable debate over the practicalities of bull-leaping. Its depictions are probably idealized, and it has been pointed out that bulls tend to sweep their horns from side to side in order to impale anything within reach. Having said that, the ancient long-horned Cretan bull almost certainly had significant differences from modern bulls and may be been bred specifically for tractability in the bull-leaping ritual. It may also have been drugged to slow its reactions.