"This image was adapted from images on bronze coins found in an excavation near Palermo. The myth of the Minotaur, a half-bull, half-man monster, originated in ancient Greece. It was an allegorical way of referring to a long-standing conflict between the island of Crete, an important trading competitor, and mainland Greece. The Cretan Royal Court supported the cult of the bull. Insulting rumors that a bull had fathered a child on the Queen of Crete (producing the first Minotaur) were common on the mainland. This Minotaur was allegedly confined to a labyrinth beneath the royal palace and fed an annual tribute of Athenian youths and maidens. This image of monstrous power so impressed the Greeks that it became a common motif in Greek artwork."