Bullfighting

Sport in which a bull is first baited and, in most cases, finally slain by a swordsman. Historic fighting venues are in the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, and Hispanic America. Bullfighting traces its roots to prehistoric bull worship and sacrifice in several cultures, including Mycenaean Greece and in prehistoric cave paintings in Spain. The sport in Europe probably developed from Roman soldiers practicing rituals of the cult of Mithras.