Europa | Titan, Zeus & Bull (2024)

FAQs

What is the myth of Europa and the bull? ›

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.

As soon as she did so, Zeus ran to the sea and carried her all the way from Phoenicia to the island of Crete. There he regained his human form and mated with her under an evergreen tree. This was the abduction of Europa, who later gave birth to three sons of Zeus, Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.

Zeus, the king of the gods, had fallen in love with the mortal princess, Europa, from the Phoenician city of Tyre, in modern Lebanon. To win her he turned himself into a magnificent bull and carried her across the ocean to the distant continent that would bear her name.

Startled, Europa could do nothing but hold on in fear. The bull swam with her on his back all the way to Crete. Here the ancient Greek god had his way with her, and she became pregnant. Unlike the other conquests or flings of Zeus, Europa's story has a happy conclusion.

Europa was the daughter of the King Agenor of Sidon. She had the continent of Europe named for her. Somewhat miraculesly Hera was distracted during her affair with Zeus and never punished her for it. One night Europa had a dream.

The myth of Europa and the Bull seems to do this in terms of Europe: it is a significant and sexy image of Europe reinventing itself as the European Union. It appears to have been known to previous ages and cultures and is in the process of being rediscovered and worked with in our present times.

The beauty of Europa inspired the love of Zeus, who approached her in the form of a white bull and carried her away from Phoenicia to Crete. There she bore Zeus three sons: Minos, ruler of Crete; Rhadamanthys, ruler of the Cyclades Islands; and, according to some legends, Sarpedon, ruler of Lycia.

The Zeus-bull connection goes even further, however, to one of the most infamous deities in the Bible: Baal. That's because Zeus is the Greek equivalent of the Canaanite-Phoenician god Baal (in the same way that the Roman Jupiter is the later equivalent of Zeus).

When Minos offended Poseidon, the sea god cursed Pasiphae with a mad passion for a white bull. With the help of Daedalus, who built a wooden cow in which she could disguise herself, Pasiphae mated with the creature and then gave birth to the fearsome Minotaur.

The classical legend of Europa being abducted not by Greek pirates but by Zeus in the shape of a bull is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to the account, Zeus took the guise of a tame white bull and mixed himself with the herds of Europa's father.

What was Europe called before it was called Europe? ›

Europa, Europe comes from the Phoenician word EROB, meaning where the sun set (west of Phoenicia,west of Bosphorus, Sea of Marmora). Erebo: I go under. Ereba: The land where I go under. Acu (pronounciatian asu) the land where I (the sun) are coming up: Ereb, ereba= europa Asu = Asie, Asia.

Io, in Greek mythology, daughter of Inachus (the river god of Argos) and the Oceanid Melia. Under the name of Callithyia, Io was regarded as the first priestess of Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus fell in love with her and, to protect her from the wrath of Hera, changed her into a white heifer.

One of the most infamous cases of infidelity in Greek mythology involves Zeus, the mighty ruler of Olympus, and his numerous dalliances with mortal women. Despite being married to Hera, the queen of the gods, Zeus couldn't resist his insatiable appetite for romance.

And the handmaidens, too, sometimes. Zeus even managed to impregnate mortal women when he was a swan or a bull.

Zeus also has Hermes with Maia. And according to some (Homer) he also has Aphrodite with Dione. Then there's Zeus' endless list of mortal flings. Europa, Io, Kallisto, Semele, Alcmene, Danaë, Ganymede, Leda.

Ariadne was the princess of the island of Crete. Her father, King Minos, was once granted possession of a beautiful white bull by the sea-god Poseidon in exchange for its earthly sacrifice. Minos could not bring himself to do it, so instead kept the bull and roasted another in its place.

In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven is known from two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later episode in the Standard Babylonian (a literary dialect of Akkadian) Epic of Gilgamesh.

Minotaur, in Greek mythology, a fabulous monster of Crete that had the body of a man and the head of a bull. It was the offspring of Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and a snow-white bull sent to Minos by the god Poseidon for sacrifice.