The Bull Icon of Crete

The cult of the bull passed on to Spain, Portugal, and even Scotland. Shakespeare's recurrent imagery of "the savage bull" may have come from his father's trade as a glover, but Claudio matches the cult image above in mocking Benedick in Much Ado:

I think he thinks upon the savage bull.
Tush! fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee,
As once Europa did at lusty Jove,
When he would play the noble beast in love. (V.iv.43-7)

Picture and data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia).