In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus in the form of a white bull and carried to Crete, where she became mother of the Cretan kings Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. She is the mythic figure of that name—not the continent Europe as a geographic abstraction, not Jupiter's Galilean moon, and not the separate figures who share the name (including an Oceanid and a Thracian sister of a nymph in some geographic lore). An early literary reference appears in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women; vase-paintings of Europa date from the mid-seventh century BCE.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Europa (consort of Zeus)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Sources agree she is Phoenician and of a line descending from Io, but differ on the father: most later authors name King Agenor of Tyre (mother Telephassa or Argiope); Homer's Iliad makes her daughter of Phoenix. Brothers commonly include Cadmus and Cilix (and sometimes Phoenix as sibling rather than father). After Zeus, she married Asterius (Asterion), king of the Cretans, who raised her divine sons.
II.Mythology
Zeus, enamoured of Europa, transformed himself into a tame white bull among her father's herds. While she gathered flowers by the sea she climbed onto his back; he ran into the waves and swam to Crete. There he revealed himself; she bore Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. Gifts associated with her include a necklace by Hephaestus, the bronze guardian Talos, the hound Laelaps, and a javelin that never missed. Later tradition placed the bull among the stars as Taurus—distinct from the Cretan Bull of Heracles' labors.
Herodotus preserves a euhemerizing variant in which Europa is a Tyrian princess kidnapped by Greeks (opening his account of East–West abductions). Lucian reports a Sidonian priestly claim that the great temple of Astarte was sacred to Europa, sister of Cadmus.
III.Namesakes
The geographic name Europe and Jupiter's moon Europa are later namesakes of the princess (or of the same Greek word), not alternate identities of this character. Myth and cult also know other Europas—e.g. an Oceanid in Hesiodic lists, and Europa as an epithet of Demeter—which must not be merged with the Phoenician consort of Zeus. The atlas id europa is exclusively the abducted Tyrian/Phoenician mother of Minos.
IV.Art and literature
Moschus composed a Hellenistic epyllion on her abduction; Ovid retells Jupiter's seduction in Metamorphoses Book 2. Archaic vase-painting and later mosaics show her on the bull—often calm, sometimes steadying herself by a horn—with little sign of fear. The episode remains a staple of European painting and political allegory for the continent that took her name.