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A Proper Name for a Proper Union. Europe’s Mythological Model

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Images of Europe

Part of the book series: Law and Visual Jurisprudence ((LVJ,volume 4))

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Abstract

This chapter aims at exploring and discussing the myth of Europa, as it has been described in Ancient Greece, in Roman times and in the Middle Ages and for its variants and interpretations in arts and literature over the centuries. Faced with the extensive body of studies about the history of Europe and the myth of Europa, our semiotic analysis delves into the hypothesis that the image of Europe is built on the myth of Europa. What are the distinctive feats of this myth and can they help us to grasp the most relevant characters of Europeans, in contrast and relationship with other cultures?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lotman and Uspenskij do not radically separate mythological from logical thinking: “One can say that mythological thinking, in this instance, coexists with logical, or descriptive, thinking. On the other hand, elements of mythological thinking may in some cases be revealed in the everyday speech behavior of a contemporary civilized society” (ibidem: 219).

  2. 2.

    Our primary sources are the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (see Robertson 1994) and the online iconographic catalogue of mythological subjects Iconos, compiled by professor Claudia Cieri Via, http://www.iconos.it/.

  3. 3.

    No mention is made of her third son, Sarpedon. What sets Homer apart from later generations of poets who refer to Europa’s children is that he ascribes the parentage of Sarpedon to Zeus and Laodameia. Hom. II, VI,198f. See Reeves (2003), pp. 29–30.

  4. 4.

    Since Europa declares that Zeus remained “where he was” (namely in Crete), she implies that she was carried off by the bull as an adjuvant of the god. More commonly, Zeus transforms himself into a bull and approaches Europa in this new form. In few other sources Zeus sends a real bull to Europa. According to the mythographer Apollodorus (The Library Book III, II BC), Acusilaus, in the early fifth century BC, was the first author to suggest that the bull was not Zeus in disguise but was sent by Zeus and that it may have been the same bull with which Heracles wrestled in his seventh labour. However, none of these sources specifies how the real bull brought Europa to Zeus; presumably the bull met Zeus in Crete and gave Europa to him there.

  5. 5.

    The most convincing explanation of Odes 3.27 is that Horace is using the myth as an exemplum in order to dissuade his current or former lover Galatea from going on a sea journey with a new man.

  6. 6.

    Boccaccio (1404) takes up from Lactantius the idea that the Cretans had a ship whose emblem was a white bull (which replaces Zeus), and says that Europa was intended as a present for the Cretan king Asterios. He adds that a beautiful bronze statue was also dedicated to her in Tarentum by the illustrious philosopher Pythagoras.

  7. 7.

    The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous ancient Greek hymns addressed to individual gods. They are “Homeric” in the sense that their epic style uses the same meter—the dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, and many similar formulas. Thucydides initially ascribed them to Homer, and during the Antiquity they were uncritically attributed to him. Some scholars have suggested that the Hymn to Apollo was composed in 522 BC to be performed at the unusual double festival held by Polycrates of Samos to honour both Apollo of Delos and Apollo of Delphi.

  8. 8.

    See Acidini Luchinat (2002); de Bartillat and Roba (2000); Passerini (2003)

  9. 9.

    See “Europe of Culture”, 28 November 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsteqNvpXKY and “Proust and European Identity”, 29 May 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce2g_M7_A44. Both links accessed: 10 June 2020. See also Claudio Paolucci’s chapter.

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  1. University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy

    Tiziana Migliore

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  1. Tiziana Migliore
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  1. University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Francesco Mangiapane

  2. University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy

    Tiziana Migliore

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Migliore, T. (2021). A Proper Name for a Proper Union. Europe’s Mythological Model. In: Mangiapane, F., Migliore, T. (eds) Images of Europe. Law and Visual Jurisprudence, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69240-7_3

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