Europa

 

From: Metamorphosis by Ovid, ca. 8 CE; Europa by Moschus, ca. 100-200 BCE; Catalogue of Women by Hesiod (?), ca. 700 BCE.

"First in the shallow waves the great god set

His spurious hooves, then sauntered further out

'Til in the open sea he bore his prize

Fear filled her heart as, gazing back, she saw

The fast receding sands . . . ."

-Metamorphosis by Ovid

This story, like many others in Hellenic mythology, centers around Zeus' insatiable libido, spurred by Cupid's impish meddling.  One caveat: this story has several different versions, and while I will focus on just one to streamline the narrative, others will be mentioned in the notes.

Europa, daughter of Agenor, King of Tyre (located in modern-day Lebanon), was well-known for her beauty, and Zeus was watching her wake up one morning.  She had been dreaming that two continents were fighting over her: Asia, who had given birth to her, and an unnamed continent, who claimed that Zeus would deliver Europa to her.  Europa was too disturbed to go back to sleep, so she called some of her nearly-as-beautiful friends over to the meadows near the sea, where they liked to hang out, "whether there were dancing afoot or the washing of a bright fair body at the outpourings of the water-brooks, or the cropping of odorous lily-flowers in the mead."  This time, they decided to pick flowers, and each brought a basket.  Europa's naturally, was the most stylish.  It was forged by Hephaestus, Olympian smith, and depicted the story of Io, appropriately enough.


All these beautiful girls picking flowers would already have been too much for Zeus to handle, especially since Hera was away.  But Cupid also decided to get involved, and shot Zeus right in the heart with a love arrow.  At this point, Zeus had no choice but to seduce/ravish (largely indistinguishable acts in these times) Europa.  So he decided to "put off the god and put on the bull," literally taking the form of an ox when he went down to visit the maidens.  But this wasn't just any ox: he was a milky-white, super-strong, crescent-horned, sweet-smelling, melodically-mooing charmer.  This bull was beautiful.  It even breathed saffron flowers from its mouth.

The virgins could not resist the bull, but he had his eye on just one, Europa.  Sure, he let them all draw near, but then he lowered his back and, as soon as Europa got on, he was outta there.  He ran out into the water (the Mediterranean) and skipped right on top of it toward home.  Europa, meanwhile, was terrified, and "she held his horn with her right hand, and, steadied by the left, held on his ample back—and in the breeze her waving garments fluttered as they went."  The waves receded and all kinds of magical beings gathered around them:

"And lo! the sea waxed calm, the sea-beasts frolicked afore great Zeus, 

the dolphins made joyful ups and tumblings over the surge, 

and the Nereids rose from the brine 

and mounting the sea-beasts rode all a-row. 

And before them all that great rumbling sea-lord 

the Earth-Shaker played pilot of the briny pathway 

to that his brother, and the Tritons gathering about him 

took their long taper shells and sounded the marriage-music 

like some clarioners of the main."

-Europa by Moschus

At some point, Europa realized what was up.  She began to doubt that this bull was really a bull.  Zeus then revealed that she was, of course, right.  "‘Tis Zeus himself that speaketh, though to the sight he seem a bull; for I can put on what semblance soever I will."  He was taking her to the island of Crete, of which he was especially fond--it was there that Zeus' mother hid him from his father, Cronus, who really wanted to eat him.  On Crete, Zeus and Europa would get married and have renowned children.  In fact, they did: Sarpedon, Minos, and Rhadamanthus.  They were all noble and wise, eventual rulers of Crete, and the latter two even became the judges of the dead.  And, of course, Europa's name is, in many languages, the etymological basis for the name of her adopted continent: Europe.

Notes:

-Europa's Lebanese home is noteworthy because of the corresponding "Sacred Bull" mythology common to many ethnic groups in the Levant.

-In an alternate (but obviously less romantic) version of the story, told by Herodotus, Europa was simply kidnapped by Minoans before being taken to Crete.  Herodotus writes that they were exacting revenge for the earlier kidnapping of Io.

-The earliest reference to the existence of Europa (though not to the myth in its entirety), appears in Homer's The Iliad, which was written around the eighth or ninth century, B.C.E.

-The identity of Europa's parents is often debated.  There is general agreement that she is Phoenician.  Many agree that her father is Agenor, King of Tyre, but The Iliad says that her father is Agenor's son, Phoenix.  Moschus says her mother is Queen Telephassa, but other sources say it's Argiope.

-Europa has two brothers: Cadmus and Cilix.  The former gave mainland Greece its first alphabet.  The latter is the namesake of Cilicia.  Some authors include Phoenix as a third brother.

-On Crete, Europa married Asterion once Zeus left.  Zeus was apparently cool with this arrangement.  She and Asterion had one son together, Asterius.

-Astronomical notes: Zeus commemorated the white bull by creating Taurus.  Galileo, having discovered four of Jupiter's moons, named each after one of Jupiter (Zeus)'s lovers; Europa is the smallest of the four.

-Europa, and her beauty, are mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales for Boys and Girls (1853), a rewriting of famous Greek myths.