Europa (consort of Zeus)

Europa
Europa
	Europa on the back of Zeus turned into a bull. A fresco at Pompeii, contemporaneous with Ovid.
Abode	Crete
Genealogy
Born	Tyre, Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon)
Parents	Agenor with either Telephassa or Argiope; alternatively Phoenix and Perimede
Siblings	Cadmus, Cilix, Phoenix
Consort	Asterion, Zeus
Children	Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon, Crete, Alagonia, Carnus

In Greek mythology, Europa (/jʊəˈroʊpə, jə-/; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē, Attic Greek pronunciation: [eu̯.rɔ̌ː.pɛː]) was a Phoenician princess from Tyre and the mother of King Minos of Crete. The continent of Europe is named after her. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a bull was a Cretan story.

An early reference to Europa is in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, discovered at Oxyrhynchus.^[1] The earliest vase-painting securely identifiable as Europa dates from the mid-7th century BC.^[2]

^ Hesiodic papyrus fragments 19 and 19A Archived 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine of the Catalogue of Women, dating from the third century AD.
^ Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985) I.3.2, note 20, referring to Schefold, plate 11B. References in myth and art have been assembled by W. Bühler, Europa: eine Sammlung der Zeugnisse des Mythos in der antiken Litteratur und Kunst (1967).

[Hesiod-1] Hesiodic papyrus fragments 19 and 19A Archived 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine of the Catalogue of Women, dating from the third century AD.

[2] Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985) I.3.2, note 20, referring to Schefold, plate 11B. References in myth and art have been assembled by W. Bühler, Europa: eine Sammlung der Zeugnisse des Mythos in der antiken Litteratur und Kunst (1967).

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