Folklore - Mythology

 
 

Europa

 

  

 

Crete is situated as the outermost bastion in the Greek area, and from the earliest times when man, or perhaps prehistoric man, invented to sail, the island has been a focal point between Asia, Africa and Europe. Therefore the cultures of the three worlds melted together here and developed into new, exciting and sometimes highly contrasting forms.
 

 
Already in ancient Greek mythology we find a poetical myth of such a fusion, namely, how Europa came to Europe.

 

 
The beautiful and wide-browed Europa was the daughter of King Aginoras of Phoenicia (the current Lebanon / Syria). Zeus fell in love with her and turned into a white bull, while he approached the girl, who was picking flowers on the beach. She was tempted by the beauty and peacefullnes of bull, so she began to caress it and finally sat on the its back. Immediately Zeus returned swiftly to Crete with her, and they united under the evergreen plate tree in Gortyna. The result of their love became the three sons Minos, Radámanthys and Sarpidon. Minos became later on King of Crete.
 

 
Since the first mention of a king named Minos dates from the 15th century BC, we get an approximate date of the abduction.
 

 
But who was Europa actually? Her grandfather was Poseidon himself, the god of the sea, and her grandmother Libya. They got two twin sons, one of whom became king of North Africa and the other of Phoenicia, so in this way Cretan mythology unites the great cultural centers of those two areas in an elegant way.

Coin from Gortyna
(3rd century BC),
showing Europa
sitting in the plane tree
 

 
At the time that Zeus and Europa had their short-lived affair, Asteríon (or Astérios) was King of Crete.
 

 
Zeus soon left Europa, but before he made sure that she married Asteríon, who also adopted her three sons, as he did not have children himself.