Europa and the Bull

172, Lot: 41. Estimate $500. Sold for $470. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRETE, Gortyna. Circa 330-270 BC. AR Stater (25mm, 12.13 g). Europa seated right in plane tree, head resting on her hand / Bull standing right, scratching muzzle with hoof. Svoronos, Numismatique 64 (pl. XIV, 11- same dies); Le Rider, Crete pl. XX, 16; BMC Crete 13. VF, usual weak strike from worn dies. Overstruck on the earlier Gortyna type with Europa on bull / Lion’s head in dotted square (Svoronos 9).

From The John A. Seeger Collection.

Zeus became entranced with Europa, daughter of king Agenor of Phoenicia. The god came to her in the form of a gentle white bull, and when the maiden climbed on his back he carried her off to Crete, landing near Gortyna. One local variant of the legend had Europa sitting in a plane tree when Zeus comes to her in the form of an eagle, a scene depicted on other coins of this type. Here, Europa is lounging in the tree, while the bull contently scratches himself. Agenor, himself descended from Io and thus somewhat familiar with divine bovines, ordered his sons to find his lost daughter. The sons were unsuccessful and never returned home. Cilix settled in what would become Cilicia, Cadmos founded Cadmea (Thebes) in Greece and Phoenix became the ancestor of all Phoenicians in Africa. Europa herself became the mother of Minos, king of Crete. It seem unlikely that she gave her name to the continent, but rather that the two words have a common etymology.