The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment. This gem is in the neo-classical style popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when taste in the arts echoed the subject matter and style of the Greek and Roman masters. Thousands of gems were made in this style in Italy and brought back by British Grand Tourists, who went there to visit the newly-discovered classical antiquities and archaeological sites. Subjects from Greek mythology were popular, and certain scenes were often portrayed using versions of the same stock images. Hercules (or Heracles, to use his Greek name), the hero and personification of physical strength and courage, was one of the most popular figures in classical and later art. He is often portrayed with a club, and a lion's skin, and the paws of the lion skin can just be seen hanging down behind him in this cameo. His twelve labours, in which he triumphed against huge odds, attest to his superhuman strength and endurance. They were undertaken at the order of the Delphic oracle as penance for slaying his own children in a fit of madness, and he performed one a year for twelve years in service to King Eurystheus. For his seventh labour Hercules was sent to Crete to capture the mad, fire-breathing bull of king Minos. He succeeded, and bore it back to Greece.