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Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Europa
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Europa
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
• Europa

in Greek mythology, was the famous beloved of Jupiter, for whose sake he transformed himself into a bull, and took her on his back to Crete, where she gave birth by him to Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. According to Homer, she was a daughter of Phoenix and Perimede; but later writers make her the daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor and Telephassa. Agenor, on learning of her abduction, sent out all his sons in search of her, with the command not to return without her. As they did not discover her, the sons settled in strange countries, and thus the father lost all his children. Europa married Asterion, the king of Crete, who brought up her children as wise, just men, so that they became the judges of the infernal regions. She was worshipped on Crete. The myth doubtless represents the passage of colonists across the Hellespont from Asia to Europe.