South from Beirut stands the
city of Tyros, where lived the king Agenor. From the union of the King
and Telephaessa, daughter of Poseidon
and Libya, came to the world the
beautiful Europa, who spent most of the time playing with her friends by
the sea.
When
Zeus saw the beautiful
girl, it is not difficult to imagine that he could not stay still any
more and that he was anxious to sleep with her. Therefore he transformed
himself into a white bull and appeared next to the girl when she was
playing. All the children run away except of Europa, who though the
animal was really fascinating. She dared to get closer and closer to the
bull, and she even sat on its back. Then the bull started to walk around
a little bit and also the other girls wanted to get a ride, but it did
not let them at all. Suddenly, the animal got into the water and, as
fast as a dolphin, with the sea opened thanks to Poseidon, Zeus took Europa to
the Greek island of Crete. There he told her that in the same way as he
had been safely brought up there in the islands, so could she live
there a wealthy and joyful life.
Europa had three children from
Zeus:
Sarpedon, Rhadamanthys, and
the great king Minos. Some sources say that
Zeus had forced her three times, other say that they loved each other. Well,
who knows, but three children...
Minos became known later on
because of the Minoan Saga. Apart from this, he and his brother Rhadamanthys had been
in fight since they were young, and when they grew up, Minos chased his
brother. He did not specially like his mother either, since she would
not let him dominate her. But Europa
got three presents from Zeus that frightened him and somehow made that
they lived together "tolerating" each other. These presents were a
golden spear that she always carried around, an extremely nasty dog, and
a bronze man who was walking around the city three or six times per
day looking for enemies.
The Cretan and Theban Sagas
The kidnap of Europa started two sagas.
On the one hand, the Cretan Saga with the powerful king Minos, who
created one of the earliest and most important cultures of his time. On
the other hand, the Theban Saga. The city of Theban was founded by the
brother of Europa, who tried to find her but did not succeed. Here we
find stories as for instance the one from Oedipus, whose destiny made
him fall in love with his mother and gave name to the Oedipus complex.
Gods / Heroes / The Danaids / Europa / The Atriden / Trojan War / The Oracle
