Theseus with the Minotaur dead, and lying on his back at his feet,
while several Athenian youths are embracing the knees, and kissing
the hand, of their deliverer. We may observe, that the fabulous being
above-mentioned appears in this piece with the intire body of a man,
and only the head of a bull, which agrees with the manner, in which he
is represented in an antique sardonyx of Greek sculpture in the cabinet
at Vienna, and in most of the works of the ancient artists. Tho’ I have
by me the copy of an antique gem, wherein the Minotaur is exhibited
as standing in the center of the famous labyrinth, and having below
the body of a bull as far as to the waist, and from thence upwards an
human form: which representation is further countenanced by Ovid, who
describes that monster, as
_Semibovemque virum, semivirumque bovem._
Art. Am. L. ii. _v._ 12.