Latin via Ovid Chapter 2 Europa et Taurus

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Latin via OvidChapter 2 Europa et Taurus

• Mythological
• Background

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Europa est puella Phoenicia.
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Phoenicia was a major influence in trade and
commerce throughout the ancient world.
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Europa was the daughter of Agenor, the King of
Tyre.
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Europa was abducted by Jupiter (Greek god Zeus),
who disguised himself as a white bull. He swam
across the surface of the water to the island of
Crete.
Representation of Europa on a metope from a
temple at Selinus, c. 500 B.C.
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Diagram of Greek Doric architecturemetope in
frieze
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Illustrations of Classical architecture in our
region

• Corinthian column with acanthus leaves
• Frieze with griffins
• at the Buffalo Museum of Science

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Representations of Europa in Greek classical art
Representations of Jupiters abduction of Europa
on Greek vase paintings.
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Representations of Europa in Roman classical art
Roman mosaic of Europa
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Representations of Europa in Western art
Antonio Carracci, 1583-1618 The Abduction of
Europa
Notice the garland of flowers around the bulls
neck
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King Minos and Minoan civilization on Crete
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King Minos and Minoan civilization on Crete

• An eponym (Greek epi onuma name), adjective
  eponymous a person whose name is thought to be
  the source of the name of something
• The ancient civilization on the island of Crete
  is eponymous with King Minos, who is the son of
  Jupiter (after he transformed himself from the
  bull form) and Europa.
• Minoan is the name given to the extinct Bronze
  Age civilization (3000-1000 B.C.) on Crete by the
  archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans

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King Minos and Minoan civilization on Crete
Fresco on a wall of the palace at Knossos on
Crete showing some bull jumping ceremony (?).
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Details of the myth of the abduction of Europa by
Jupiter

• Europa bore Jupiter three sons Minos,
  Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon
• Jupiter gave Europa three gifts a bronze robot,
  talos, who guarded the shores of Crete against
  invaders a dog that would never let its prey
  escape and a hunting spear that would always hit
  its mark (target)
• Jupiter married Europa to the King of Crete,
  Asterius, who adopted her children
• Europas son Minos was married to the daughter of
  Helios, Pasiphae, who bore him children Ariadne,
  Phaedra, and Androgeus

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Genealogy of the progeny of Europa
King of Tyre in Phonecia
Asterius
m. Europa m. Zeus
Agenor m. ?

Rhadamanthus Sarpedon
Minos m. Pasiphae m. white bull Asterius
adopted Europas children by Jupiter

Ariadne
Phaedra Androgeus

Minotaur
All of Europas children, in addition to the
Minotaur, are involved in their own myths, all
tragic in outcome.
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Minos bull the myth of the Minotaur

• When competing for supremacy in Crete, Minos
  claimed that the gods destined him to rule
• Minos offered a sacrifice to Poseidon and prayed
  that a bull might come out of the sea as a sign
  that he (Minos) was chosen by the gods to rule
  it did, and he was made King of Crete
• Minos should have sacrificed the bull to Poseidon
  to thank him for his help however, Minos admired
  the bull and kept it

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The consequences of Minos violation of sacred
obligations to the gods

• Poseidon punished Minos by causing his wife,
  Pasiphae, to fall in love with the bull
• The product of their union was the monster the
  Minotaur (Minos bull), a human man with the head
  of a bull (man-eating monster)

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The Labyrinth

• Minos hired Daedalus, a famous architect, to
  build a labyrinth to hide/ confine the Minotaur
• In a later myth, the Greek hero Theseus kills the
  Minotaur and escapes the labyrinth, aided by
  Ariadne (a daughter of Minos)

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The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus

• Minos then marooned Daedalus and his son Icarus
  on an island so that Daedalus could not reveal
  the secret of the labyrinth (how to get in and
  back out again)
• Daedalus then created wings so that he and his
  son could fly off the island

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The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus

• Even though Daedalus warned his son not to fly
  too near the sun, Icarus did not heed his
  fathers warning and fell crashing into the sea
• The myth of Daedalus and Icarus is a didactic
  mythit teaches a lesson dont ignore the advice
  of your father !

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Minoan civilization
The Lion Gate at the Palace of Knossos on Crete.
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Another view of the Lion Gate at the Minoan
palace on Crete
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Myth as Symbol

• The abduction of Europa from Phoenicia and her
  life on Crete is a symbolic representation of the
  transplanting and merging of the culture of the
  Near East, through the Minoan and Mycenaean
  civilizations, with the culture of Europe and
  Western Civilization.
• This incident was rationalized by the Greek
  historian Herodotus as one of the historical
  incidents between the Greeks and the Asians that
  ultimately led to the Persian Wars.

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Minoan and Mycenaean civilization

• Mycenae-a very ancient city on a hill in the
  north-east corner of the Plain of Argos in the
  Peloponnesus on the mainland of Greece-was
  inhabited in the third millennium B.C. by a
  pre-Hellenic (Greek) population, akin to that of
  Minoan Crete
• there is some mysterious link between these
  civilizations, illustrating the diffusion
  (spread) of culture to remote locations
• The Mycenaean civilization was revealed in 1876
  through the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann

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Mycenae and Mycenaean civilization
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Mycenae and Mycenaean civilization

• According to Greek myth, Mycenae was founded by
  the legendary (mythic) hero Perseus, and
• subsequently became the kingdom of Agamemnon
  (brother of Menelaus)the leader of the Greek
  forces in the Trojan War

This golden death mask of an Aegean king was
found at the acropolis of Mycenae. The
archeologist Heinrich Schliemann referred to it
as the Mask of Agamemnon.