The gate of the year

Painting on a black-glazed chalice from Paestum, dating to the IV century B.C., now in the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), Paestum, Italy. The image portrays Europa, riding on the bull which carries her through the sea, among the Tritons, marine beings with an half-fish and half-human aspect. According to the myth, Zeus fell in love with the Phoenician princess Europa, and transformed himself into a white bull to abduct the girl. Attracted by the mild aspect of the animal, she climbed on its back and let it carry her to the faraway island of Crete, where she gave birth to three children. One of them was Minos, the future ruler of the island and father of the Minotaur. This tale is one of the few in Greek mythology in which it is told of an explicit transformation of a deity into an animal. The normal aspect with which the Greek divinities manifest themselves is always the human form, so much so that the perfection of the human body became the favourite image for the representation of the sacred, and was the fundament for the anthropomorphism typical of the Olympian gods. The Europa myth has witnessed a certain popularity, mostly because it celebrates the character from which the name of our continent has been derived, and it has inspired innumerable artistic productions (Passerini 2002). Actually, it appears also on the two-Euros Greek coin. Nevertheless, the myth seems to contain very ancient elements and perhaps contains the traces of an archaic representation of the intercourse between the heavenly god, in the shape of a bull, with an earthly and fertility goddess. The reference to Crete, the destination of the journey, is not accidental. Testimonies from Minoan Crete (2700-1450 B.C.) shows the presence of a cult primarily devoted to a female deity, Great Mother or Mistress of Animals, associated with representations and symbols of the bull. Europa is mentioned by Hesiod (Theogony, 357) within the series of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, deities of the primordial world. Her name seems to mean “She who has large eyes” or “with a broad face”, an epithet which recalls the appellation of Hera, Zeus’s wife, as “She who has bovine eyes”. According to Károly Kérenyi “most of the love stories of Zeus were in ancient times tales of his wedding with a goddess. This is true first and foremost for the Europa story” (Kerenyi, 1951, p.103).

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Human-Animal Transformation

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Painting on a black-glazed chalice from Paestum, dating to the IV century B.C., now in the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), Paestum, Italy. The image portrays Europa, riding on the bull which carries her through the sea, among the Tritons, marine beings with an half-fish and half-human aspect. According to the myth, Zeus fell in love with the Phoenician princess Europa, and transformed himself into a white bull to abduct the girl. Attracted by the mild aspect of the animal, she climbed on its back and let it carry her to the faraway island of Crete, where she gave birth to three children. One of them was Minos, the future ruler of the island and father of the Minotaur. This tale is one of the few in Greek mythology in which it is told of an explicit transformation of a deity into an animal. The normal aspect with which the Greek divinities manifest themselves is always the human form, so much so that the perfection of the human body became the favourite image for the representation of the sacred, and was the fundament for the anthropomorphism typical of the Olympian gods. The Europa myth has witnessed a certain popularity, mostly because it celebrates the character from which the name of our continent has been derived, and it has inspired innumerable artistic productions (Passerini 2002). Actually, it appears also on the two-Euros Greek coin. Nevertheless, the myth seems to contain very ancient elements and perhaps contains the traces of an archaic representation of the intercourse between the heavenly god, in the shape of a bull, with an earthly and fertility goddess. The reference to Crete, the destination of the journey, is not accidental. Testimonies from Minoan Crete (2700-1450 B.C.) shows the presence of a cult primarily devoted to a female deity, Great Mother or Mistress of Animals, associated with representations and symbols of the bull. Europa is mentioned by Hesiod (Theogony, 357) within the series of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, deities of the primordial world. Her name seems to mean “She who has large eyes” or “with a broad face”, an epithet which recalls the appellation of Hera, Zeus’s wife, as “She who has bovine eyes”. According to Károly Kérenyi “most of the love stories of Zeus were in ancient times tales of his wedding with a goddess. This is true first and foremost for the Europa story” (Kerenyi, 1951, p.103). [Source: http://denver4victory.wordpress.com/]