Your First Bullfight? Here’s What You’ll See

You find your seat in the grandstands and sit down. In front of you is a big circle of yellow sand, surrounded by a red fence.

Horns blow, a gate opens, and the toreros (bullfighters) come out into the ring. Band music starts up.

The Parade (paseillo)

All the toreros walk together across the ring in a little parade, along with the horses and mules that will take part in the fight.  They bow to the president (presiding authority) who sits in the box of honor; then they get behind the fence.

The Bull Appears

Silence. Suddenly a gate opens in the fence and the bull comes running into the ring, its head high. It charges anything it sees moving, man or cape. Bullfighters (subordinates) wave a big cape at it to make it come their way, then they get behind the fence before it reaches them.

Now the main bullfighter steps into the ring and stands firm while the bull charges him. It looks like the bull will get him. But he holds out a big cape and the bull barges right through it, galloping past, just inches away from him. The crowd cheers, maybe they already shout “Olé!”

The bull turns around and comes back.  The torero again stands still and receives the charge, holding open the big pink cape. Again the bull drives right by him through the cape. This will happen several more times and then a trumpet blows and the torero gets back behind the fence, leaving the bull alone in the ring.

The Picadors

Out into the ring come men (picadores) mounted on big horses.  They look a little like heavy-set Don Quijotes because they wear some armor and hold a lance.

The horses (there are two) wear a long padded skirt for protection. The bull charges one of them and while it is trying to gore the horse, the picador on top drives his lance into the bull’s shoulder muscles. The lance has a pin to keep it from penetrating more than a couple of inches.

Two or three times the bull charges a horse and gets lanced. Then a trumpet blows and the horses walk out of the ring.

The Banderilleros

Now it is the turn of the banderilleros, bullfighters who put in banderillas—decorated sticks or harpoons. Holding these in both hands, they provoke a charge and when the bull arrives they avoid his horns by deftly stepping aside and at the same time they drive the two sticks into its shoulder muscles.

Three times they do this, so the bull has six banderillas hanging from his shoulders (if none fall out). Then they leave the ring.

The Bullfighter Alone with the Bull

Now comes the final part: the close passes and the killing of the bull. The head torero comes out holding a smaller cape and a sword. Alone with the bull and working very close, he provokes charge after charge. The danger is evident.

The horns just miss his body as the bull drives through the cape. The torero’s  way of effecting these passes, his grace and timing, make this final part of the fight the most tense and exciting.

The Kill

Finally, he raises his sword and, running directly at the bull,  drives it between its shoulder blades.

If the sword is well-placed, the bull will die immediately. Sometimes the bullfighter needs more tries before it falls down dead.

The Applause

That is all. If the crowd likes the torero’s work they will wave handkerchiefs to ask the president to give him one of the bull’s ears as a prize. The torero walks around the ring, receiving the ovation of the spectators.  The dead bull is dragged out of the ring by a team of mules.

Six bulls will be fought and killed in the same way during a bullfight—two for each of the three  star toreros.

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Ingenious Device for Raising Water

Nowadays with a gasoline motor and a pump we can do about anything.
But in the old days, and not so old days, there were no gasoline motors.
Inventors tried to come up with some other way, for example, to lift water up to a castle from a river down in the valley. A way that would use the current of the river to push the water up the hill.

The Italian inventor Gianello Torriano found one and became justly famous for it. In about 1565 he brought water to the Royal Alcázar of Toledo, 100 meters above the Tagus River.

The castle (Alcázar) of Toledo (top right), with the Tagus River below

It is on record that he did it; but the device was long ago destroyed and has to be re-constructed from guesses. The most widely accepted design is the one proposed by Ladislao Reti, based on fragments of contemporary descriptions:

“A large water wheel powered a revolving belt with buckets or amphora that transported water to the top of a tower. When the buckets reached the top of the tower they would upend pouring the water into a small tank from where it would travel down to a smaller tower via a pipe. A second water wheel provided mechanical power to pumps that drove a series of cups mounted on arms inside the second tower. The arms of the cups were hollow with an opening at the end which allowed water to run down inside the arm and out of the opposite end. A see-sawing motion of the arms lifted the water to successive levels in the cups. Once the final level was reached the water flowed down a second pipe to a third tower which contained further cups on arms and was also activated by the mechanical power derived from the second water wheel. This final tower raised the water high enough to allow it to flow into the storage tanks at the Alcázar.” (Wikipedia)

By 1568 the machine was delivering around 14,100 liters a day to the Alcázar and the entire city above.

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He Founded Rome

What is this? Who is that burly guy and why is he carrying an old man?

The burly guy is Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome; and he’s caring his dad, Anchises. They are getting out of Troy, their home, as fast as they can because the city is on fire.
The little boy is Aeneas’ son, Ascanius.

What’s the old man carrying?

Those are the penates, the home-gods that watch over you. Every household had some in a niche in the hall. They were what you grabbed to take with you when you could take only one thing. They would protect you and your family.

Who made the statue?

Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He carved it in 1619, when he was only twenty. It is in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.

But what is the story?

It is a side-story in the Trojan War legend, the subject of the Illiad, Homer’s great epic poem. The Greeks all knew this and many other stories from that idealized history of their country. The Greek version of this one ended with the flight of Aeneas, a prince of Troy, and his family.

Aeneas and his father as depicted on a Greek vase

When Rome was inventing its own history years later and looking for a founder, it took up this Aeneas thread. Roman historians thought they couldn’t do better than the old Greek legends. Monkeying the story of Ulysses, who after the Trojan War was kept wandering around the world because of the curse of an angry god, they said Aeneas and his family were made to wander around the Mediterranean after leaving Troy because of the curse of an angry goddess. The hero was not able to settle down until, after years, he reached Latium, the place that would become Rome. Anchises died along the way. Aeneas’s wife did too. Eventually Aeneas became king of the Latins and married a local princess.

Aeneas’ flight from Troy with his father on his shoulders was always a hard one to depict with grace. Here is Raphael’s version.

Aeneas is carrying the old man fireman-style and really struggling with the weight.

Barocci’s painting is wonderful illustration of the whole scene:

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