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The familiar Greek myth of the Minotaur shares its ancestry with a far older tradition that stretches back to cave art from Crete’s Neolithic period. Once upon a time, in the earliest years of the Bronze Age, mighty Minoa, the greatest trading power in the Aegean, worshipped a divine star being who allegedly came to Earth to live among them.
Asterion literally means “star,” and the word is strongly associated with Bronze Age Minoan kings, who, in order to rule, were said to take the form of the Cretan bull of the sun.
The exact beliefs of Bronze Age Minoans can only be guessed, but archeologists have discovered bronze coins stamped with Asterion’s image. The coins often depict a kneeling bull-king along with a star-shaped flower and possibly the constellation Taurus. It is speculated the coins are attempting to show Asterion’s divine place on both Earth and amongst the stars.
Old stories are like coins—they always have two sides. Asterion is my side of the coin. It’s a highly speculative and purely fictional tale of a young woman’s encounter with one of the original Asterion....
Katalina Leon