Bull Jumping

From Wikipedia :

A major festive celebration was exemplified in the famous athletic Minoan bull dance, represented at large in the frescoes of Knossos and inscribed in miniature seals. In this feat that appears extremely dangerous, both male and female dancers would confront the bull and, grasping it by its sacred horns, permit themselves to be tossed, somersaulting over its back to alight behind it. Each of these sequential movements appears in Minoan representations, but the actual significance of the bull dance in Minoan cult and cultural life is lost beyond retrieval. What is clear, however, is that there is no inkling of an antagonistic confrontation and triumph of the human through the ritual death of the bull, which is the essence of the surviving bullfight of Hispanic culture; rather, there is a sense of harmonious cooperation.

This "bull dance" was something the locals practiced for from the time they were children, but every year 7 Athenian youths were brought in to the games and due to inexperience they were killed. When you incorporate the stories of the many-roomed and many-layered palace or "Labyrinth" and children being "fed" to the bulls it is easy to see the beginnings of the myth of the Minotaur of the Labyrinth. Sorry, but I'm a bit of a mythology junkie and I love this stuff!

In case you need a refresher on the Myth of the Minotaur here is another Wikipedia quote:

After he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval. He was to sacrifice the bull in honor of Poseidon but decided to keep it instead because of its beauty. To punish Minos, Poseidon caused Pasiphaë, Minos' wife, to fall madly in love with the bull from the sea, the Cretan Bull. She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a wooden cow for her. Pasiphaë climbed into the decoy to seduce the white bull. The offspring of their unnatural lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur.

The Minotaur was eventually killed by a sneaky Athenian lad with a Cretan girlfriend's help.