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 labrynth 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

The Greeks, who first colonized Sicily in 735 B.C., brought the motif with them to Sicily in the form of ceramics and metalwork. The masculine form of the bull was very popular in early Sicilian and Italian culture.

Because of its unique geography and separation from continental Europe, Sicily has retained a distinctive artistic identity. Waves of colonization by Greeks and the Romans, and, later, by Muslim forces from North Africa and then Christian forces from Northern Europeans, have left their mark on Sicily, but the influences of each incursion tended to be integrated into the strong local culture rather than effacing it, creating a unique and culturally complex folk art.