According to myths, Europa was named after an Asian princess. Europa was abducted by Zeus, who had transformed himself into a bull, while she was picking flowers with her friends on the beaches of Tyre, a city in modern-day Lebanon. The animal carried her from Asia across the sea to Crete, where it married her. Her brother Cadmus came to Greece to look for her. He did not find her, but founded the city of Thebes instead.
AnonymousIn the beginning [Europe] was the name of a woman. The narrative of people, of things and ideas is always marked by the names given to them. So also the tale of Zeus´ love-stories with deceived, abducted, seduced princesses reveals in their names a remote key to understanding the present. The abduction of the Phoenician princess by the God, turned into a bull, is just a short episode in the tormented relationships of the civilizations born on the coasts of the Mediterranean. Myth illuminates history.
The myth calls them Io, Telefassa, Europa, Arianna, Fedra, Elena, kidnapped women, sometimes fugitives or looking for their beloved ones. All these women triggered the oscillations between Asia and Europe: at each oscillation a woman, and with her a crowd of predators, passed from one coast to the other; this is the story.
At an unspecified point in this age of oscillations, Europa — the daughter of the King of Tyre — begins a journey on the back of her kidnapper. Riding on a god in the form of a bull, she travels towards a wild and unnamed land on the other side.
The name of a woman. A tale made of names; of men overpowering women, overpowering other men. And also a tale of journeys across this sea surrounded by lands, exchanging goods and abductions, plundering and culture, something not yet resolved today.
Pietro Gaglianò, All’inizio dell’Europa (o verso la sua fine), 2016
