Europa (mythology)

This article is not about the daughter of Tityus and mother of Euphemus (by Poseidon), who was also named Europa.

Europa (Greek Ευρώπη) was a Phoenician woman in Greek mythology, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. There were two competing myths relating how Europa came into the Hellenic world, but they agreed that she came to Crete, where the sacred bull was paramount. In the more familiar telling she was seduced by the god Zeus in the form of a bull and carried away to Crete on his back— to be welcomed by Minos According to a scholium on Iliad XII.292, noted in Karl Kerenyi, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life p105., but according to a more literal version in Herodotus, she was kidnapped by Minoans, who likewise were said to have taken her to Crete. The mythical Europa cannot be separated from the mythology of the sacred bull, which had been worshipped in the Levant. The etymology of her name (ευρυ- "wide" or "broad" + οπ- "eye(s)" or "face") suggests that Europa represented a cow, at least at some symbolic level. Metaphorically, it could mean the intelligent or open-minded, synonymous to glaukopis (γλαυκώπις) attributed to Athena.

The myth that the continent Europe is named after a princess (Euroopè) from Tyre with a wide (euro-) eyed (oopè) face is obvious popular etymology possibly dealing with a Semitic borrowing. The link with Tyre alerts one to the fact that the Greek word bears suspicious similarity wity the Semitic root ERB (`ayn-raa'-baa') which has the meaning "westerner","alien" and "desert dweller" (being a cognate of the Semitic root GRB - ghayn-raa'-baa'). It is the root behind the word Arab (EaRaB) and - with metathesis - possibly also behind the word Hebrew (EiBR). The source for the name Europè may therefore have been a Semitic, possibly Phoenician word close to the pattern EuRuuB meaning "stranger" or "westerner". Supporting evidence comes from similar Greek folk etymologies, e.g., in the name Pontos Euxeinos ("hospitable sea") for "Black Sea" were the Greek Euxeinos replaced the Aryan (Persian or Scythian) word Akshinas "black".

The Europa myth

The rape of Europa

According to legend, Zeus was enamored of her and decided to seduce or rape her, the two being near-equivalent in Greek myth. He transformed himself into a white bull and mixed in with her father's herds. While Europa and her female attendants were gathering flowers, she saw the bull and caressed his flanks and eventually got onto its back. Zeus took that chance and ran to the sea and swam, with her on his back, to the island of Crete. He then revealed his true identity, and Europa became the first queen of Crete. Zeus gave her three gifts: Talos, Laelaps and a javelin that never missed. Zeus later re-created the shape of the white bull in the stars which is now known as the constellation Taurus. Some legends relate that this same bull was also encountered by Hercules, and that it eventually fathered the Minotaur.

Europa's family

Sources differ in details regarding her family but agree that she is Phoenician, and from a lineage that descended from Io, the mythical princess who was transformed into a heifer. Most commonly, she is said to be the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor and Queen Telephassa of Tyre. Other sources, such as the Iliad, claim that she is the daughter of Agenor's son, Phoenix. It is generally agreed that she had two brothers, Cadmus, who brought the alphabet to mainland Greece, and Cilix who gave his name to Cilicia in Asia Minor. After arriving in Crete, Europa had three children: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. She married Asterion; and then later, Asterius. According to mythology, her children were fathered by Zeus.

Europa in literature

Ovid

The poet Ovid wrote the following depiction of Zeus' seduction:

And gradually she lost her fear, and he

Offered his breast for her virgin caresses,

His horns for her to wind with chains of flowers

Until the princess dared to mount his back

Her pet bull's back, unwitting whom she rode.

Then—slowly, slowly down the broad, dry beach—

First in the shallow waves the great god set

His spurious hooves, then sauntered further out

Till in the open sea he bore his prize

Fear filled her heart as, gazing back, she saw

The fast receding sands. Her right hand grasped

A horn, the other lent upon his back

Her fluttering tunic floated in the breeze.

His picturesque details belong to anecdote and fable: in all the depictions, whether she straddles the bull, as in archaic vase-paintings or the ruined metope fragment from Sikyon, or sits gracefully sidesaddle in a mosaic from North Africa, there is no trace of fear. Often Europa steadies herself by touching one of the bull's horns, acquiescing.

Herodotus

According to Herodotus, Europa was kidnapped by Minoans who were seeking to avenge the kidnapping of Io, a princess from Argos. His variant story may have been an attempt to rationalize the earlier myth; or the present myth may be a garbled version of facts--the rapine of a Phoenician aristocrat--later enunciated without gloss by Herodotus.

Europa in the visual arts

Greek vase paintings
Roman frescoes (see image above)
François Boucher, The Rape of Europa
Gustave Moreau, Europa and the Bull (see image above)
Titian, The Rape of Europa
Paolo Veronese, The Rape of Europa

Europa as the continent's name

The continent of Europe is called Europa in all Germanic languages except English, in Hungarian (Európa) and in some Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet, as well as in Greek and Latin. Her name appeared on postage stamps commemorating the "United Europe", which were first issued in 1956.

Notes

References

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, III, i, 1-2
Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1.2
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 862, translation by A.D. Melville (1986), p.50

External links

A metope from Sicily, carved with Europa, ca 550 - 540 BCE: the bull's face, turned head-on, clearly reveals his Near Eastern iconic antecedents
Europa on the Greek 2 euro coins

Greek mythological people | Greek mythology

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Europa (mythology)