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Europa (consort of Zeus)

In Greek mythology, Europa (/jʊəˈrpə, jə-/; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē, Attic Greek pronunciation: [eu̯.rɔ̌ː.pɛː]) was a Phoenician princess of Argive Greek origin, and the mother of King Minos of Crete. The continent of Europe may be named after her. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a bull was a Cretan story; as classicist Károly Kerényi points out, "most of the love-stories concerning Zeus originated from more ancient tales describing his marriages with goddesses. This can especially be said of the story of Europa."[1]

Europa
Europa on the back of Zeus turned into a bull. A fresco at Pompeii, contemporary with Ovid.
AbodeCrete
Personal information
Born
ParentsAgenor with either Telephassa or Argiope; alternatively Phoenix and Perimede
SiblingsCadmus, Cilix, Phoenix
ConsortAsterion, Zeus
ChildrenMinos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon, Crete, Alagonia, Carnus

Europa's earliest literary reference is in the Iliad, which is commonly dated to the 8th century BC.[2] Another early reference to her is in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, discovered at Oxyrhynchus.[3] The earliest vase-painting securely identifiable as Europa dates from the mid-7th century BC.[4]

Etymology

 
Statue of Europa representing Europe at Palazzo Ferreria

Greek Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē) contains the elements εὐρύς (eurus), "wide, broad"[5] and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- (ōps/ōp-/opt-) "eye, face, countenance".[6] Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion.[7]

It is common in ancient Greek mythology and geography to identify lands or rivers with female figures. Thus, Europa is first used in a geographic context in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in reference to the western shore of the Aegean Sea.[8] As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BC by Anaximander and Hecataeus.[9] The weakness of an etymology with εὐρύς (eurus), is 1. that the -u stem of εὐρύς disappears in Εὐρώπη Europa and 2. the expected form εὐρυώπη euryopa that retains the -u stem in fact exists.

An alternative suggestion due to Ernest Klein and Giovanni Semerano (1966) attempted to connect a Semitic term for "west", Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" (in reference to the sun), Phoenician 'ereb "evening; west", which would parallel occident (the resemblance to Erebus, from PIE *h1regʷos, "darkness", is accidental, however). Barry (1999) adduces the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night", "[the country of] sunset", in opposition to Asu "[the country of] sunrise", i.e. Asia (Anatolia coming equally from Ἀνατολή, "(sun)rise", "east").[10] This proposal is mostly considered unlikely or untenable.[note 1][11][12]

Family

 
The birthplace of Europa, Tyre, Lebanon

Sources differ in details regarding Europa's family, but agree that she is Phoenician, and from an Argive lineage that ultimately descended from the princess Io, the mythical nymph beloved of Zeus, who was transformed into a heifer. She is generally said to be the daughter of Agenor, the Phoenician King of Tyre;[13] the Syracusan poet Moschus[14] makes her mother Queen Telephassa ("far-shining") but elsewhere her mother is Argiope ("silver-faced").[note 2] Other sources, such as the Iliad, claim that she is the daughter of Agenor's son, the "sun-red" Phoenix.[15][16] 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, with the author of Bibliotheke including Phoenix as a third. So some interpret this as her brother Phoenix (when he is assumed to be son of Agenor) gave his siblings' name to his three children and this Europa (by this case, niece of former) is also loved by Zeus, but because of the same name, gave some confusions to others. After arriving in Crete, Europa had three sons fathered by Zeus: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon, the first two becoming judges of the Underworld, alongside Aeacus of Aegina, when they died.[13][17] In Crete she married Asterion also rendered Asterius and became mother (or step-mother) of his daughter Crete. Pausanias wrote that the poet Praxilla makes Carnus a son of Europa.[18]

Comparative table of Europa's family
Relation Names Sources
Alcman Hom. Sch. Iliad Hes. Hella. Bacchy. Sch. Eurip Mosc Con Diod. Apollod. Hyg. Pau. Non.
Parentage Phoenix [note 3] [note 3]
Phoenix and Cassiopeia
Phoenix and Telephassa
Phoenix and Telephe
Phoenix and Perimede
Agenor
Agenor and Telephassa
Agenor and Argiope
Siblings Phineus [note 4]
Astypale
Phoenice
Peirus
Cadmus
Thasus
Phoenix
Cilix
Adonis
Consorts Zeus
Asterius
Children Minos [note 5]
Rhadamanthys
Sarpedon
Carnus

Mythology

The Dictionary of Classical Mythology explains that Zeus was enamoured of Europa and decided to seduce or rape her, the two being near-equivalent in Greek myth.[19] He transformed himself into a tame white bull and mixed in with her father's herds. While Europa and her helpers were gathering flowers, she saw the bull, caressed his flanks, and eventually got onto his back. Zeus took that opportunity 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 a necklace made by Hephaestus[3] and three additional gifts: the bronze automaton guard Talos, the hound Laelaps who never failed to catch his quarry, 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. It should not be confused with the Cretan Bull that fathered the Minotaur and was captured by Heracles. Roman mythology adopted the tale of the Raptus, also known as "The Abduction of Europa" and "The Seduction of Europa", substituting the god Jupiter for Zeus.

The myth of Europa and Zeus may have its origin in a sacred union between the Phoenician deities `Aštar and `Aštart (Astarte), in bovine form. Having given birth to three sons by Zeus, Europa married a king Asterios, this being also the name of the Minotaur and an epithet of Zeus, likely derived from the name `Aštar.[20]

According to Herodotus' rationalizing approach, Europa was kidnapped by Greeks (probably Cretans), 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 abduction of a Phoenician aristocrat—later enunciated without gloss by Herodotus.

Cult

 
Terracotta figurine from Athens, c. 460–480 BC

Astarte and Europa

In the territory of Phoenician Sidon, Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) was informed that the temple of Astarte, whom Lucian equated with the moon goddess, was sacred to Europa:

There is likewise in Phœnicia a temple of great size owned by the Sidonians. They call it the temple of Astarte. I hold this Astarte to be no other than the moon-goddess. But according to the story of one of the priests this temple is sacred to Europa, the sister of Cadmus. She was the daughter of Agenor, and on her disappearance from Earth the Phœnicians honoured her with a temple and told a sacred legend about her; how that Zeus was enamoured of her for her beauty, and changing his form into that of a bull carried her off into Crete. This legend I heard from other Phœnicians as well; and the coinage current among the Sidonians bears upon it the effigy of Europa sitting upon a bull, none other than Zeus. Thus they do not agree that the temple in question is sacred to Europa.[13]

The paradox, as it seemed to Lucian, would be solved if Europa is Astarte in her guise as the full, "broad-faced" moon.

Interpretation

There were two competing myths[21] relating how Europa came into the Hellenic world, but they agreed that she came to Crete (Kríti), where the sacred bull was paramount. In the more familiar telling she was seduced by the god Zeus in the form of a bull, who breathed from his mouth a saffron crocus[3] and carried her away to Crete on his back—to be welcomed by Asterion,[note 6] but according to the more literal, euhemerist version that begins the account of Persian-Hellene confrontations of Herodotus,[note 7] she was kidnapped by Cretans, 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. In 2012, an archaeological mission of the British Museum led by Lebanese archaeologist, Claude Doumet Serhal, discovered at the site of the old American school in Sidon, Lebanon currency that depicts Europa riding the bull with her veil flying all over like a bow, further proof of Europa's Phoenician origin.[22]

Europa does not seem to have been venerated directly in cult anywhere in classical Greece,[note 8] but at Lebadaea in Boeotia, Pausanias noted in the 2nd century AD that Europa was the epithet of Demeter—"Demeter whom they surname Europa and say was the nurse of Trophonios"—among the Olympians who were addressed by seekers at the cave sanctuary of Trophonios of Orchomenus, to whom a chthonic cult and oracle were dedicated: "the grove of Trophonios by the river Herkyna ... there is also a sanctuary of Demeter Europa ... the nurse of Trophonios."[23]

The festival of Hellotia in Crete was celebrated in honour of Europa.[24][25]

Argive genealogy

Argive genealogy in Greek mythology
Colour key:

  Male
  Female
  Deity


In art and literature

 
Europa and bull on a Greek vase. Tarquinia Museum, Italy, circa 480 BCE
 
Scene of Zeus in the form of a bull abducting Europa from an Apulian red-figure dinos, dating c. 370 – c. 330 BCE, now held in the Eskenazi Museum of Art

Europa provided the substance of a brief Hellenistic epic written in the mid-2nd century BCE by Moschus, a bucolic poet and friend of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, born at Syracuse.[note 9]

In Metamorphoses Book II, the poet Ovid wrote the following depiction of Jupiter's 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
'til 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 as 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.

Her tale is also mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales. Though his story titled "Dragon's teeth" is largely about Cadmus, it begins with an elaborate albeit toned down version of Europa's abduction by the beautiful bull.

The tale also features as the subject of a poem and film in the Enderby (fictional character) sequence of novels by Anthony Burgess. She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.[26]

Gallery

Namesakes

 
Europa and the bull, depicted as the continent's personification in Nova et accurata totius Europæ descriptio by Fredericus de Wit (1700)

Continent

The name Europe, as a geographical term, was used by Ancient Greek geographers such as Strabo to refer to part of Thrace below the Balkan mountains.[27] Later, under the Roman Empire the name was given to a Thracian province.

It is derived from the Greek word Eurōpē (Εὐρώπη) in all Romance languages, Germanic languages, Slavic languages, Baltic languages, Celtic languages, Iranian languages, Uralic languages (Hungarian Európa, Finnish Eurooppa, Estonian Euroopa).

 
Europa depicted on the 2013 Europa Series of euro banknotes

Jürgen Fischer, in Oriens-Occidens-Europa[28] summarized how the name came into use, supplanting the oriensoccidens dichotomy of the later Roman Empire, which was expressive of a divided empire, Latin in the West, Greek in the East.

In the 8th century, ecclesiastical uses of "Europa" for the imperium of Charlemagne provide the source for the modern geographical term. The first use of the term Europenses, to describe peoples of the Christian, western portion of the continent, appeared in the Hispanic Latin Chronicle of 754, sometimes attributed to an author called Isidore Pacensis[29] in reference to the Battle of Tours fought against Muslim forces.

The European Union has also used Europa as a symbol of pan-Europeanism, notably by naming its web portal after her and depicting her on the Greek €2 coin and on several gold and silver commemorative coins (e.g. the Belgian €10 European Expansion coin). Her name appeared on postage stamps celebrating the Council of Europe, which were first issued in 1956. The second series of euro banknotes is known as the Europa Series and bears her likeness in the watermark and hologram.

 
Europa, a moon of Jupiter

Chemical element

The metal europium, a rare-earth element, was named in 1901 after the continent.[30]

Moon of Jupiter

The invention of the telescope revealed that the planet Jupiter, clearly visible to the naked eye and known to humanity since prehistoric times, has an attendant family of moons. These were named for male and female lovers of the god and other mythological persons associated with him. The smallest of Jupiter's Galilean moons was named after Europa.

Notes

  1. ^ Martin Litchfield West states that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor". M. L. West (1997). The east face of Helicon: west Asiatic elements in Greek poetry and myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 451. ISBN 0-19-815221-3..
  2. ^ Kerenyi points out that these names are attributes of the moon, as is Europa's broad countenance.
  3. ^ a b Though Europa was unnamed in this text, she must be the daughter of Phoenix who coupled with Zeus.
  4. ^ Even though Phineus was called the son of Agenor according to Apollodorus, his mother may be different because only three sons (Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix) were born to Agenor and Telephassa.
  5. ^ Unnamed but pertains to Minos who was king of Crete
  6. ^ According to the scholium on Iliad XII.292, noted in Karl Kerenyi (1996) Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life p. 105. ISBN 0691029156. Pausanias rendered the name Asterion (2.31.1); in Bibliotheke (3.1.4) it is Asterion.
  7. ^ Herodotus, Histories I.1; the act is made out to be a revenge for the previous "kidnapping" of Io.
  8. ^ No public statue of Europa is mentioned by Pausanias or any other Classical writer, but a headless statuette, closely draped in a cloak over a peplos, of the type called "Amelung's Goddess", but inscribed "Europa", at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, seems to be a Roman copy of a lost Greek original, of c. 460 BC; an uninscribed statuette of the same type, from Hama, Syria, is in the Damascus Museum, and a full-size copy has been found in Baiae: Martin Robertson (1957). "Europa". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. JSTOR. 20 (1/2): 1. doi:10.2307/750147. JSTOR i230424. S2CID 244492052.; I. E. S. Edwards, ed. The Cambridge Ancient History, plates to vols. V and VI 1970:illus. fig. 24.
  9. ^ The poem was published with voluminous notes and critical apparatus: Winfried Bühler, Die Europa des Moschos (Wiesbaden: Steiner) 1960.

References

  1. ^ Kerenyi, Karl (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. Thames and Hudson. p. 108.
  2. ^ Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Le monde d'Homère, Perrin 2000:19; M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus, (1954) 1978:16 gives "the years between 750 and 700 BC, or a bit later".
  3. ^ a b c Hesiodic papyrus fragments 19 and 19A 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine of the Catalogue of Women, dating from the third century AD.
  4. ^ Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985) I.3.2, note 20, referring to Schefold, plate 11B. References in myth and art have been assembled by W. Bühler, Europa: eine Sammlung der Zeugnisse des Mythos in der antiken Litteratur und Kunst (1967).
  5. ^ εὐρύς 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  6. ^ ὤψ 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  7. ^ M. L. West (2007). Indo-European poetry and myth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 178–179. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.. Compare also glaukōpis (γλαυκῶπις 'grey-eyed') Athena or boōpis (βοὠπις 'ox-eyed') Hera).
  8. ^ Τελφοῦσ᾽, ἐνθάδε δὴ φρονέω περικαλλέα νηὸν / ἀνθρώπων τεῦξαι χρηστήριον, οἵτε μοι αἰεὶ ἐνθάδ᾽ ἀγινήσουσι τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας, / ἠμὲν ὅσοι Πελοπόννησον πίειραν ἔχουσιν / ἠδ᾽ ὅσοι Εὐρώπην τε καὶ ἀμφιρύτας κατὰ νήσους "Telphusa, here I am minded to make a glorious temple, an oracle for men, and hither they will always bring perfect hecatombs, both those who live in rich Peloponnesus and those of Europe and all the wave-washed isles, coming to seek oracles." (verses 247–251, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White).
  9. ^ Histories 4.38. C.f. James Rennell, The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained, Volume 1, Rivington 1830, p. 244
  10. ^ M.A. Barry (1999) "L’Europe et son mythe : à la poursuite du couchant". Revue des deux Mondes. p. 110. ISBN 978-2-7103-0937-6
  11. ^ Klein, Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Barking: Elsevier) vol. I A-K, 1966; Klein's etymology of Europa is singled out among his "optimistic" conclusions in G. W. S. Friedrichsen (1967). "REVIEWS". The Review of English Studies. Oxford University Press (OUP). XVIII (71): 295–297. doi:10.1093/res/xviii.71.295. JSTOR i222266.
  12. ^ Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Europa" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  13. ^ a b c "Europa (mythology)". Encarta. Microsoft Corporation. 2008.
  14. ^ Moschus, Europa (on-line text at Theoi Project 2021-05-03 at the Wayback Machine).
  15. ^ Homer, Iliad, Book 14, line 321. from the original on 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  16. ^ Scholia on Homer, Iliad B, 494, p. 80, 43 ed. Bekk. as cited in Hellanicus' Boeotica
  17. ^ Pseudo-Apollonius, Bibliotheke 3.1.1.
  18. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 3.13.5
  19. ^ Pierre Grimal; Stephen Kershaw (1991). The Penguin dictionary of classical mythology ([Abridged ed.] ed.). London, England: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140512357. OCLC 25246340.
  20. ^ M. L. West (23 October 1997). The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press. pp. 452–. ISBN 978-0-19-159104-4. from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  21. ^ Bibliotheke 3.1.1.
  22. ^ . Lorientjour.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-25. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
  23. ^ Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.39.2–5.
  24. ^   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSchmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Hellotia". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. pp. 378–379. Via archive.org.
  25. ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Ellotia
  26. ^ Giovanni Boccaccio (2003). Famous Women. I Tatti Renaissance Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Virginia Brown. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. xi. ISBN 0-674-01130-9.
  27. ^ Strabo, Geography 8.1.1 2008-10-08 at the Wayback Machine.
  28. ^ Jürgen Fischer, Oriens–Occidens–Europa (Wiesbaden: Steiner) 1957.
  29. ^ David Levering Lewis, God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215, New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.
  30. ^ "Periodic Table: Europium". Royal Society of Chemistry. from the original on 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2021-11-05.

Further reading

Primary sources

Metamorphoses, ii.833-iii.2, vi.103–107

Secondary sources

  • Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, III, i, 1–2
  • Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics), translated by Robin Hard, Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-283924-1
  • Graves, Robert, (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths
  • D'Europe à l'Europe, I. Le mythe d'Europe dans l'art et la culture de l'antiquité au XVIIIe s. (colloque de Paris, ENS – Ulm, 24–26.04.1997), éd. R. Poignault et O. Wattel — de Croizant, coll. Caesarodunum, n° XXXI bis, 1998.
  • D'Europe à l'Europe, II. Mythe et identité du XIXe s. à nos jours (colloque de Caen, 30.09–02.10.1999), éd. R. Poignault, F. Lecocq et O. Wattel – de Croizant, coll. Caesarodunum, n° XXXIII bis, 2000.
  • D’Europe à l’Europe, III. La dimension politique et religieuse du mythe d’Europe de l‘Antiquité à nos jours (colloque de Paris, ENS-Ulm, 29–30.11.2001), éd. O. Wattel — De Croizant, coll. Caesarodunum, n° hors-série, 2002.
  • D’Europe à l’Europe, IV. Entre Orient et Occident, du mythe à la géopolitique (colloque de Paris, ENS-Ulm, 18–20.05.2006), dir. O. Wattel — de Croizant & G. de Montifroy, Editions de l’Age d’Homme, Lausanne – Paris, 2007.
  • D’Europe à l’Europe, V. État des connaissances (colloque de Bruxelles, 21–22.10.2010), dir. O. Wattel – de Croizant & A. Roba, Bruxelles, éd. Métamorphoses d’Europe asbl, 2011.

External links

  • : the bull's face, turned head-on, clearly reveals his Near Eastern iconic antecedents
  • Europa on the Greek euro coin of €2
  • www.europesname.eu A study describing the origin and artistic use of the name EUROPE in its mythical, geographic and political sense by Drs. Peter H. Gommers
  • Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 250 images of Europa) 2016-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
  • "Europa" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

europa, consort, zeus, rape, europa, redirects, here, other, uses, rape, europa, disambiguation, greek, mythology, europa, ʊəˈr, ancient, greek, Εὐρώπη, eurṓpē, attic, greek, pronunciation, pɛː, phoenician, princess, argive, greek, origin, mother, king, minos,. The Rape of Europa redirects here For other uses see The Rape of Europa disambiguation In Greek mythology Europa j ʊeˈr oʊ p e j e Ancient Greek Eὐrwph Eurṓpe Attic Greek pronunciation eu rɔ ː pɛː was a Phoenician princess of Argive Greek origin and the mother of King Minos of Crete The continent of Europe may be named after her The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a bull was a Cretan story as classicist Karoly Kerenyi points out most of the love stories concerning Zeus originated from more ancient tales describing his marriages with goddesses This can especially be said of the story of Europa 1 EuropaEuropa on the back of Zeus turned into a bull A fresco at Pompeii contemporary with Ovid AbodeCretePersonal informationBornTyre Phoenicia modern day Lebanon citation needed ParentsAgenor with either Telephassa or Argiope alternatively Phoenix and PerimedeSiblingsCadmus Cilix PhoenixConsortAsterion ZeusChildrenMinos Rhadamanthys Sarpedon Crete Alagonia CarnusEuropa s earliest literary reference is in the Iliad which is commonly dated to the 8th century BC 2 Another early reference to her is in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women discovered at Oxyrhynchus 3 The earliest vase painting securely identifiable as Europa dates from the mid 7th century BC 4 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Family 3 Mythology 4 Cult 4 1 Astarte and Europa 4 2 Interpretation 5 Argive genealogy 6 In art and literature 7 Gallery 8 Namesakes 8 1 Continent 8 1 1 Chemical element 8 2 Moon of Jupiter 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 11 1 Primary sources 11 2 Secondary sources 12 External linksEtymology EditFurther information Europe Name Statue of Europa representing Europe at Palazzo FerreriaGreek Eὐrwph Eurṓpe contains the elements eὐrys eurus wide broad 5 and ὤps ὠp ὀpt ōps ōp opt eye face countenance 6 Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto Indo European religion 7 It is common in ancient Greek mythology and geography to identify lands or rivers with female figures Thus Europa is first used in a geographic context in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo in reference to the western shore of the Aegean Sea 8 As a name for a part of the known world it is first used in the 6th century BC by Anaximander and Hecataeus 9 The weakness of an etymology with eὐrys eurus is 1 that the u stem of eὐrys disappears in Eὐrwph Europa and 2 the expected form eὐrywph euryopa that retains the u stem in fact exists An alternative suggestion due to Ernest Klein and Giovanni Semerano 1966 attempted to connect a Semitic term for west Akkadian erebu meaning to go down set in reference to the sun Phoenician ereb evening west which would parallel occident the resemblance to Erebus from PIE h1regʷos darkness is accidental however Barry 1999 adduces the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of night the country of sunset in opposition to Asu the country of sunrise i e Asia Anatolia coming equally from Ἀnatolh sun rise east 10 This proposal is mostly considered unlikely or untenable note 1 11 12 Family Edit The birthplace of Europa Tyre Lebanon Sources differ in details regarding Europa s family but agree that she is Phoenician and from an Argive lineage that ultimately descended from the princess Io the mythical nymph beloved of Zeus who was transformed into a heifer She is generally said to be the daughter of Agenor the Phoenician King of Tyre 13 the Syracusan poet Moschus 14 makes her mother Queen Telephassa far shining but elsewhere her mother is Argiope silver faced note 2 Other sources such as the Iliad claim that she is the daughter of Agenor s son the sun red Phoenix 15 16 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 with the author of Bibliotheke including Phoenix as a third So some interpret this as her brother Phoenix when he is assumed to be son of Agenor gave his siblings name to his three children and this Europa by this case niece of former is also loved by Zeus but because of the same name gave some confusions to others After arriving in Crete Europa had three sons fathered by Zeus Minos Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon the first two becoming judges of the Underworld alongside Aeacus of Aegina when they died 13 17 In Crete she married Asterion also rendered Asterius and became mother or step mother of his daughter Crete Pausanias wrote that the poet Praxilla makes Carnus a son of Europa 18 Comparative table of Europa s family Relation Names SourcesAlcman Hom Sch Iliad Hes Hella Bacchy Sch Eurip Mosc Con Diod Apollod Hyg Pau Non Parentage Phoenix note 3 note 3 Phoenix and Cassiopeia Phoenix and Telephassa Phoenix and Telephe Phoenix and Perimede Agenor Agenor and Telephassa Agenor and Argiope Siblings Phineus note 4 Astypale Phoenice Peirus Cadmus Thasus Phoenix Cilix Adonis Consorts Zeus Asterius Children Minos note 5 Rhadamanthys Sarpedon Carnus Mythology Edit The Abduction of Europa by Rembrandt 1632 The Dictionary of Classical Mythology explains that Zeus was enamoured of Europa and decided to seduce or rape her the two being near equivalent in Greek myth 19 He transformed himself into a tame white bull and mixed in with her father s herds While Europa and her helpers were gathering flowers she saw the bull caressed his flanks and eventually got onto his back Zeus took that opportunity 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 a necklace made by Hephaestus 3 and three additional gifts the bronze automaton guard Talos the hound Laelaps who never failed to catch his quarry 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 It should not be confused with the Cretan Bull that fathered the Minotaur and was captured by Heracles Roman mythology adopted the tale of the Raptus also known as The Abduction of Europa and The Seduction of Europa substituting the god Jupiter for Zeus The myth of Europa and Zeus may have its origin in a sacred union between the Phoenician deities Astar and Astart Astarte in bovine form Having given birth to three sons by Zeus Europa married a king Asterios this being also the name of the Minotaur and an epithet of Zeus likely derived from the name Astar 20 According to Herodotus rationalizing approach Europa was kidnapped by Greeks probably Cretans 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 abduction of a Phoenician aristocrat later enunciated without gloss by Herodotus Cult Edit Terracotta figurine from Athens c 460 480 BC Astarte and Europa Edit In the territory of Phoenician Sidon Lucian of Samosata 2nd century AD was informed that the temple of Astarte whom Lucian equated with the moon goddess was sacred to Europa There is likewise in Phœnicia a temple of great size owned by the Sidonians They call it the temple of Astarte I hold this Astarte to be no other than the moon goddess But according to the story of one of the priests this temple is sacred to Europa the sister of Cadmus She was the daughter of Agenor and on her disappearance from Earth the Phœnicians honoured her with a temple and told a sacred legend about her how that Zeus was enamoured of her for her beauty and changing his form into that of a bull carried her off into Crete This legend I heard from other Phœnicians as well and the coinage current among the Sidonians bears upon it the effigy of Europa sitting upon a bull none other than Zeus Thus they do not agree that the temple in question is sacred to Europa 13 The paradox as it seemed to Lucian would be solved if Europa is Astarte in her guise as the full broad faced moon Interpretation Edit There were two competing myths 21 relating how Europa came into the Hellenic world but they agreed that she came to Crete Kriti where the sacred bull was paramount In the more familiar telling she was seduced by the god Zeus in the form of a bull who breathed from his mouth a saffron crocus 3 and carried her away to Crete on his back to be welcomed by Asterion note 6 but according to the more literal euhemerist version that begins the account of Persian Hellene confrontations of Herodotus note 7 she was kidnapped by Cretans 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 In 2012 an archaeological mission of the British Museum led by Lebanese archaeologist Claude Doumet Serhal discovered at the site of the old American school in Sidon Lebanon currency that depicts Europa riding the bull with her veil flying all over like a bow further proof of Europa s Phoenician origin 22 Europa does not seem to have been venerated directly in cult anywhere in classical Greece note 8 but at Lebadaea in Boeotia Pausanias noted in the 2nd century AD that Europa was the epithet of Demeter Demeter whom they surname Europa and say was the nurse of Trophonios among the Olympians who were addressed by seekers at the cave sanctuary of Trophonios of Orchomenus to whom a chthonic cult and oracle were dedicated the grove of Trophonios by the river Herkyna there is also a sanctuary of Demeter Europa the nurse of Trophonios 23 The festival of Hellotia in Crete was celebrated in honour of Europa 24 25 Argive genealogy EditArgive genealogy in Greek mythology vteInachusMeliaZeusIoPhoroneusEpaphusMemphisLibyaPoseidonBelusAchiroeAgenorTelephassaDanausElephantisAegyptusCadmusCilixEuropaPhoenixMantineusHypermnestraLynceusHarmoniaZeusPolydorusSpartaLacedaemonOcaleaAbasAgaveSarpedonRhadamanthusAutonoeEurydiceAcrisiusInoMinosZeusDanaeSemeleZeusPerseusDionysusColour key Male Female DeityIn art and literature Edit Europa and bull on a Greek vase Tarquinia Museum Italy circa 480 BCE Scene of Zeus in the form of a bull abducting Europa from an Apulian red figure dinos dating c 370 c 330 BCE now held in the Eskenazi Museum of Art Europa provided the substance of a brief Hellenistic epic written in the mid 2nd century BCE by Moschus a bucolic poet and friend of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace born at Syracuse note 9 In Metamorphoses Book II the poet Ovid wrote the following depiction of Jupiter s 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 til 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 as 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 Her tale is also mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne s Tanglewood Tales Though his story titled Dragon s teeth is largely about Cadmus it begins with an elaborate albeit toned down version of Europa s abduction by the beautiful bull The tale also features as the subject of a poem and film in the Enderby fictional character sequence of novels by Anthony Burgess She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio composed in 1361 62 It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature 26 Gallery Edit Europa velificans her fluttering tunic in the breeze mosaic Zeugma Mosaic Museum The Rape of Europa by Titian 1562 The Rape of Europa by Francois Chauveau 1650 The Rape of Europa by Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre 1750 The Rape of Europa by Francisco Goya 1772 The Rape of Europa by Felix Vallotton 1908 The Rape of Europa by Valentin Serov 1910 Europa on the Bull by Carl Milles 1926 Rapto de Europa by Juan Oliveira Vieitez 1989 Europa by Leon de Pas 1997 Europe by May Claerhout 1999 Namesakes Edit Europa and the bull depicted as the continent s personification in Nova et accurata totius Europae descriptio by Fredericus de Wit 1700 Continent Edit Further information European symbols Europa The name Europe as a geographical term was used by Ancient Greek geographers such as Strabo to refer to part of Thrace below the Balkan mountains 27 Later under the Roman Empire the name was given to a Thracian province It is derived from the Greek word Eurōpe Eὐrwph in all Romance languages Germanic languages Slavic languages Baltic languages Celtic languages Iranian languages Uralic languages Hungarian Europa Finnish Eurooppa Estonian Euroopa Europa depicted on the 2013 Europa Series of euro banknotes Jurgen Fischer in Oriens Occidens Europa 28 summarized how the name came into use supplanting the oriens occidens dichotomy of the later Roman Empire which was expressive of a divided empire Latin in the West Greek in the East In the 8th century ecclesiastical uses of Europa for the imperium of Charlemagne provide the source for the modern geographical term The first use of the term Europenses to describe peoples of the Christian western portion of the continent appeared in the Hispanic Latin Chronicle of 754 sometimes attributed to an author called Isidore Pacensis 29 in reference to the Battle of Tours fought against Muslim forces The European Union has also used Europa as a symbol of pan Europeanism notably by naming its web portal after her and depicting her on the Greek 2 coin and on several gold and silver commemorative coins e g the Belgian 10 European Expansion coin Her name appeared on postage stamps celebrating the Council of Europe which were first issued in 1956 The second series of euro banknotes is known as the Europa Series and bears her likeness in the watermark and hologram Europa a moon of Jupiter Chemical element Edit The metal europium a rare earth element was named in 1901 after the continent 30 Moon of Jupiter Edit Further information Europa moon The invention of the telescope revealed that the planet Jupiter clearly visible to the naked eye and known to humanity since prehistoric times has an attendant family of moons These were named for male and female lovers of the god and other mythological persons associated with him The smallest of Jupiter s Galilean moons was named after Europa Notes Edit Martin Litchfield West states that phonologically the match between Europa s name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor M L West 1997 The east face of Helicon west Asiatic elements in Greek poetry and myth Oxford Clarendon Press p 451 ISBN 0 19 815221 3 Kerenyi points out that these names are attributes of the moon as is Europa s broad countenance a b Though Europa was unnamed in this text she must be the daughter of Phoenix who coupled with Zeus Even though Phineus was called the son of Agenor according to Apollodorus his mother may be different because only three sons Cadmus Phoenix and Cilix were born to Agenor and Telephassa Unnamed but pertains to Minos who was king of Crete According to the scholium on Iliad XII 292 noted in Karl Kerenyi 1996 Dionysus Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life p 105 ISBN 0691029156 Pausanias rendered the name Asterion 2 31 1 in Bibliotheke 3 1 4 it is Asterion Herodotus Histories I 1 the act is made out to be a revenge for the previous kidnapping of Io No public statue of Europa is mentioned by Pausanias or any other Classical writer but a headless statuette closely draped in a cloak over a peplos of the type called Amelung s Goddess but inscribed Europa at the Metropolitan Museum of Art seems to be a Roman copy of a lost Greek original of c 460 BC an uninscribed statuette of the same type from Hama Syria is in the Damascus Museum and a full size copy has been found in Baiae Martin Robertson 1957 Europa Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes JSTOR 20 1 2 1 doi 10 2307 750147 JSTOR i230424 S2CID 244492052 I E S Edwards ed The Cambridge Ancient History plates to vols V and VI 1970 illus fig 24 The poem was published with voluminous notes and critical apparatus Winfried Buhler Die Europa des Moschos Wiesbaden Steiner 1960 References Edit Kerenyi Karl 1951 The Gods of the Greeks Thames and Hudson p 108 Pierre Vidal Naquet Le monde d Homere Perrin 2000 19 M I Finley The World of Odysseus 1954 1978 16 gives the years between 750 and 700 BC or a bit later a b c Hesiodic papyrus fragments 19 and 19A Archived 2021 12 22 at the Wayback Machine of the Catalogue of Women dating from the third century AD Walter Burkert Greek Religion 1985 I 3 2 note 20 referring to Schefold plate 11B References in myth and art have been assembled by W Buhler Europa eine Sammlung der Zeugnisse des Mythos in der antiken Litteratur und Kunst 1967 eὐrys Archived 2021 12 22 at the Wayback Machine Henry George Liddell Robert Scott A Greek English Lexicon on Perseus ὤps Archived 2021 12 22 at the Wayback Machine Henry George Liddell Robert Scott A Greek English Lexicon on Perseus M L West 2007 Indo European poetry and myth Oxford Oxford University Press pp 178 179 ISBN 978 0 19 928075 9 Compare also glaukōpis glaykῶpis grey eyed Athena or boōpis boὠpis ox eyed Hera Telfoῦs ἐn8ade dὴ fronew perikallea nhὸn ἀn8rwpwn teῦ3ai xrhsthrion oἵte moi aἰeὶ ἐn8ad ἀginhsoysi telhessas ἑkatombas ἠmὲn ὅsoi Peloponnhson pieiran ἔxoysin ἠd ὅsoi Eὐrwphn te kaὶ ἀmfirytas katὰ nhsoys Telphusa here I am minded to make a glorious temple an oracle for men and hither they will always bring perfect hecatombs both those who live in rich Peloponnesus and those of Europe and all the wave washed isles coming to seek oracles verses 247 251 trans Hugh G Evelyn White Histories 4 38 C f James Rennell The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained Volume 1 Rivington 1830 p 244 M A Barry 1999 L Europe et son mythe a la poursuite du couchant Revue des deux Mondes p 110 ISBN 978 2 7103 0937 6 Klein Etymological Dictionary of the English Language Barking Elsevier vol I A K 1966 Klein s etymology of Europa is singled out among his optimistic conclusions in G W S Friedrichsen 1967 REVIEWS The Review of English Studies Oxford University Press OUP XVIII 71 295 297 doi 10 1093 res xviii 71 295 JSTOR i222266 Gilman D C Peck H T Colby F M eds 1905 Europa New International Encyclopedia 1st ed New York Dodd Mead a b c Europa mythology Encarta Microsoft Corporation 2008 Moschus Europa on line text at Theoi Project Archived 2021 05 03 at the Wayback Machine Homer Iliad Book 14 line 321 Archived from the original on 2022 01 04 Retrieved 2022 01 04 Scholia on Homer Iliad B 494 p 80 43 ed Bekk as cited in Hellanicus Boeotica Pseudo Apollonius Bibliotheke 3 1 1 Pausanias Graeciae Descriptio 3 13 5 Pierre Grimal Stephen Kershaw 1991 The Penguin dictionary of classical mythology Abridged ed ed London England Penguin Books ISBN 0140512357 OCLC 25246340 M L West 23 October 1997 The East Face of Helicon West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth Oxford University Press pp 452 ISBN 978 0 19 159104 4 Archived from the original on 22 December 2021 Retrieved 17 March 2022 Bibliotheke 3 1 1 The Designer And if Europe was Sidonian Lorientjour com Archived from the original on 2013 05 25 Retrieved 2012 11 28 Pausanias Guide to Greece 9 39 2 5 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Schmitz Leonhard 1870 Hellotia In Smith William ed Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Vol 2 pp 378 379 Via archive org A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities 1890 Ellotia Giovanni Boccaccio 2003 Famous Women I Tatti Renaissance Library Vol 1 Translated by Virginia Brown Cambridge MA Harvard University Press p xi ISBN 0 674 01130 9 Strabo Geography 8 1 1 Archived 2008 10 08 at the Wayback Machine Jurgen Fischer Oriens Occidens Europa Wiesbaden Steiner 1957 David Levering Lewis God s Crucible Islam and the Making of Europe 570 to 1215 New York W W Norton 2008 Periodic Table Europium Royal Society of Chemistry Archived from the original on 2012 01 24 Retrieved 2021 11 05 Further reading EditPrimary sources Edit Isidore Etymologiae xiv 4 1 Herodotus The Histories Book 1 2 Eusebius Chronicon 47 7 10 25 53 16 17 55 4 5 Ovid Metamorphoses 862 translation by A D Melville 1986 p 50Metamorphoses ii 833 iii 2 vi 103 107 dd Secondary sources Edit Pseudo Apollodorus Bibliotheke III i 1 2 Apollodorus The Library of Greek Mythology Oxford World s Classics translated by Robin Hard Oxford University Press 1999 ISBN 0 19 283924 1 Graves Robert 1955 1960 The Greek Myths D Europe a l Europe I Le mythe d Europe dans l art et la culture de l antiquite au XVIIIe s colloque de Paris ENS Ulm 24 26 04 1997 ed R Poignault et O Wattel de Croizant coll Caesarodunum n XXXI bis 1998 D Europe a l Europe II Mythe et identite du XIXe s a nos jours colloque de Caen 30 09 02 10 1999 ed R Poignault F Lecocq et O Wattel de Croizant coll Caesarodunum n XXXIII bis 2000 D Europe a l Europe III La dimension politique et religieuse du mythe d Europe de l Antiquite a nos jours colloque de Paris ENS Ulm 29 30 11 2001 ed O Wattel De Croizant coll Caesarodunum n hors serie 2002 D Europe a l Europe IV Entre Orient et Occident du mythe a la geopolitique colloque de Paris ENS Ulm 18 20 05 2006 dir O Wattel de Croizant amp G de Montifroy Editions de l Age d Homme Lausanne Paris 2007 D Europe a l Europe V Etat des connaissances colloque de Bruxelles 21 22 10 2010 dir O Wattel de Croizant amp A Roba Bruxelles ed Metamorphoses d Europe asbl 2011 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Europa mythology Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Europa A metope from Sicily carved with Europa c 550 540 BCE the bull s face turned head on clearly reveals his Near Eastern iconic antecedents Europa on the Greek euro coin of 2 www europesname eu A study describing the origin and artistic use of the name EUROPE in its mythical geographic and political sense by Drs Peter H Gommers Warburg Institute Iconographic Database ca 250 images of Europa Archived 2016 03 10 at the Wayback Machine Europa New International Encyclopedia 1905 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Europa consort of Zeus amp oldid 1129780778, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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