Andrews, 1969, The Myth of Europa and Minos (1)

8/17/2019 Andrews, 1969, The Myth of Europa and Minos (1)

1/8

The Myth of Europa and Minos

Author(s): P. B. S. AndrewsReviewed work(s):Source: Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Apr., 1969), pp. 60-66Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/642899 .

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2/8

THE

MYTH

OF

EUROPA

AND

MINOS

By

P. B. S.

ANDREWS

EUROPA

was the

daughter

of

Phoinixor

Agenor,

king

of

Phoenice,

and

Telephassa;

her brother was

Cadmos.

Zeus

came in

the form

of a

bull and carried

her

away

to

Crete,

where

she

gave

birth

to

Minos,

also

Rhadamanthys

and

Sarpedon

the elder. Afterwards she

married

Asterios

(or Asterion),

who reared

her

children.

Their father

sent Cadmos to search for

her,

but

he

never

found her.

When

in his

wandering

he came

to

Delphi, Apollo

commanded him

to

abandon the

search and

go

and found Thebes instead.

Minos married

Pasiphae, daughter

of the

Sun

(Helios);

she

bore him

Ariadne and

Phaidra.

(Also

other children in various

traditions.)

Minos

prayed

to Poseidon to send him

a

bull for

sacrifice,

but the bull

which

appeared

was

so beautiful that

he

kept

it and sacrificed another. Posei-

don in

anger

made

Pasiphae

love

his

bull;

she

coupled

with it and bore

Minotauros

(sometimes

also

called

Asterios),

a

man with

a

bull's

head.

Minos confined Minotauros

in the

house

Labyrinthos

and

fed

him

on

human flesh.

When

Minos

conquered

Athens,

the Athenians were com-

pelled

to send their children

to feed

Minotauros,

until Theseus came

with

them,

killed

Minotauros

with

the

help

of

Ariadne,

and

escaped.

These are the

essential contents of the

myth,

as

given

in

agreement

by

all the best authorities.

It is

evident at once that

Europa

and

Pasiphae

are

doublets;

each

is

a

queen

of Crete who

mates

with

a

divine

bull and bears

a

son called

Mino-. Therefore

they

are in

principle

the same

person;

which means

that their names are interchangeable, and so should be those of their

kinsfolk.

Phoinix

is

evidently

a

suitable

name for the

Sun,

and Tele-

pha[e]ssa

for

the Sun's wife

(cf.

Euryphaessa,

mother

of Helios

in

the

Homeric

Hymn).

Agenor,

however,

who

is

not

in

Homer,

seems not to

fit the

pattern

and to be intrusive.

Conversely, Europa,

whatever

it

means,

should be

as

appropriate

as is

Pasiphae

to a

daughter

of

the

Sun;

and

Cadmos should

be

appropriate

to a son

of

the

Sun.

Europa

cannot

have

been

formed to

mean

'wide

eye'

in Greek

(though

it

might suggest

it to

a

Greek-speaker),

since

e'p11s

in

such

compounds

is not elided. Since

Cadmos and Europa are both 'Phoenician', it is striking that in Phoeni-

cian,

as

in Semitic

generally,

q-d-m

and

'-r-b

mean

respectively

'sun-

rise/east'

and

'sunset/west'.

According

to Pausanias

(iii.

26.

i)

Pasiphae

in

his

day

was

a

title of

the

Moon;

he does

not

say

whether in this

capacity

she

was

daughter


3/8

THE MYTH OF EUROPA AND MINOS 61

or sister of Helios. But

it is

equally

suitable in

principle

for

either

luminary.

In all known

religions

of

the

bronze-age

east,

from

Anatolia to

Sumer

and Egypt, the Moon is a male god. Sometimes he has a consort, but she

is

not

necessarily

a

moon-goddess;

at

Ugarit,

for

instance,

where

her

name is

borrowed

from

Sumerian,

she

is

daughter

of the

god

of

summer

and herself a

pure fertility-goddess,

the

type

of the divine

Bride. It

seems

perfectly possible

that the case

was

the same

in

Minoan

cult-

though

not

necessarily

in

Mycenaean,

since

the

Greek

grammatical

genders

of the luminaries were

surely

already

determined.

The sex of the Sun varies. In

Egypt

and Sumer and

among

the

eastern

Semites he is

male,

with or

without

a

consort.

In

Hatti,

however,

the

principal

royal

deity

was a

sun-goddess, though

there was also a sun-

god;

and at

Ugarit

the

sun-goddess

appears virtually

alone. Her name

was

1-p-s,

beside the

regular

Semitic masc.

s-m-s'.

This

parallelism

somewhat

recalls

that of

IE

fem.

*suwen-

and

masc.

*sdwel-.

Again

it

seems

possible

(especially

in

view of the

'Phoenician' association of

Europa)

that the Minoan

cult resembled the

Ugaritic,

or

perhaps

rather

the

Hittite,

in

this

respect.

I

suggest,

therefore,

that the

myth

of

Europa

and Minos is

really

'astronomical' and reflects

the

ritual of an

important

event

in

the calen-

dar,

the

appearance

of the first new moon of summer-most

likely

regarded

as the

beginning

of the

year.

Europa

is

the

sun-goddess,

Minos

(here)

the

moon-god,

Zeus the

constellation

Taurus,

and Asterios the

constellation Orion.

(Rhadamanthys

and

Sarpedon

are

intrusive in the

myth

as

such;

they

are

type-kings,

possibly

of Phaistos

and

Mallia,

associated with Minos in his

capacity

as

king

of

Knossos.)

The

goddess

comes

up

from

her

father's

palace

on the eastern

shore,

riding

on the

back of the

Bull of

Heaven-i.e. at the time of the

heliacal

rising

of the

Pleiades, the 'shoulder' of Taurus; and at evening she is brought to bed

in

the west

('-r-b)

of the

new moon with

his

bull-horns.

In

1500

B.C.

the

Pleiades

would rise

at the end of

April,

in

2000

B.C.

about a week

earlier.

The

myth

in

fact

is

not

simply

a

pretty

fairy-tale,

much less a

fragment

of

genuine

history,

about human

kings

and

queens

of

Crete.

It is a

perfectly practical

instruction

to

priests

and

people:

in

modern

terms,

'The

year

begins

with

the

new

moon which

appears

on

a

day

when

the

sun

rose with the

Pleiades.' In

the direct

ancestry,

in

fact,

of

the

plain-

language

instructions in

the Works

and

Days;

it

was not for

nothing

that

that was attributed to the same poet as compiled the first comprehensive

summary

of

mythology.

Of course

the

relationship

of

new moon to heliacal

rising

would

actually vary

considerably

from

year

to

year;

if

the Pleiades

just

missed

a new

moon,

as it

were,

by

the

next time round most of the

stars of


4/8

62

THE

MYTH OF

EUROPA

AND

MINOS

Taurus

would be

rising

before the

sun and some of

those

of Orion. This

is

why

the

Starry King

as well

as

the Bull of Heaven comes

into

the

myth

as

a

long-stop;

in

any

case,

when

the

new moon

really

did coincide with

the rising of the Pleiades, the stars of Orion would be dominating the

dawn

by

the

next

lunation,

which

is

why

Asterios has the

bringing

up

of

Minos.

If

this

was the

basis of the Minoan

calendar-year,

it would

easily

be

discovered that

if the

moon and Pleiades coincided

well

in a

particular

year, they

would tend to do so

again

in

each

eighth year

thereafter,

at

any

rate for

the best

part

of

any

single

lifetime's

observation. The

octaeteris

seems to be an

Aegean

discovery,

not used

in other

systems.

It is

much too

crude

a

cycle

for a

precise

calendar,

since the moon is

about

i4

days

later each

eighth

year,

but it was

quite

good enough

for

the

bronze-age Aegean.

And this

theory exactly

explains

Homer's

saying

of

Minos:

EvvcAopoS

oiAEVuE

l6S

lr~d&hou

apto-r'is.

(Od.

xix.

'79)

The statement

only

makes

sense,

in terms of

the

octaeteris,

f 'Minos'

here is the moon. The sun

is

always

there at the

right

time,

and so for

practical

purposes

are the

stars;

it

is

only

the

moon

that

goes wandering

all over the

place,

and turns

up properly

or

its

appointmentonly every

eight (or

by

Greek

reckoning

nine')

years.

As to the Moon's

being

the

'confidential

ossip'

of

great

Zeus,

is the

implication

of

this

perhaps

hat

Zeus

himself,

the

Sun,

and

everyone

else can

see and

hear

what

goes

on

in the

daytime;

only

the

Moon

is around at

night

to

hear,

and

report,

what

possibly

treasonable

whispersgo

on

in

the

dark?

I

see

no

difficulty

n

supposing

that the

proper

name

or title of the

Moon became

the

regularroyal

title of the

kings

of

Knossos.

It cor-

responds

directly

to 'Son of

RE"' s the

principal

title

of

the

kings

of

Egypt, and to the kings of Hatti sometimescallingthemselvessimply

'the

Sun'. The Cretan

king

was

regarded

as

the

earthly

representative

and avatar

of the

other

luminary,

because

there was

no

male

sun-god

at

all or because

he

was

a minorand

unimportant

igure.

Philologically

he

identification

eems

of

some

interest,

since

it is

hard,

if Minos

really

means

the

moon-god,

not to

connect

it with

*mines-

in some

unidenti-

fied

IE

language.

The

accepted

view that

non-Greek

words

of

this

type

are w-stems

like true Greek

pirlrpcos

as been

challengedby

Linear B

interpretation:

f

e-ro-e and

to-ro-o there

are

really

herjei

and

Trios,

they must in fact be formers-stems.

The

interpretation

f

Asterios

as Orion

to

Zeus'

Taurus

is I

think

certain. We have

no reason to

assume

a

priori

that

the ancients

divided

the

constellations

s we

do,

but the

Bull and

the

Giant

are

surely

of all

constellations

he most

compulsive.

In the Mediterranean

hey

south


5/8

THE

MYTH

OF

EUROPA AND

MINOS

63

at

just

the

right

altitude to

catch

the

wondering eye,

and are

always

the

right way

up. They

lie in

the most

brilliant

region

of

the

sky,

with three

first-magnitude

stars between them besides the

Pleiades

and

Hyades,

Belt and Sword, and four more strung round them to the east. And to a

Minoan the Giant would

surely

have

a

special

appeal-for

would

he

not

see

in him

a

bull-dancer,

with

tight

belt and

codpiece,

reaching up

his

arms

to

seize the

horns of

the Bull

and vault between

them

?

(May

it

not

even have been

this

fancy

which first

impelled

Cretan

athletes to

try

whether

it could

really

be

done?)

It seems to

me

impossible

to

accept

that Cadmos brother

of

Europa

and Cadmos founder of

Thebes can

be

originally

the

same

person;

they

have

been

confounded,

and

their

myths

run

into

one,

through

a

purely

chance

homonymy

of Phoenician

q-d-m

with the native Helladic ethnic

Cadmeios.

The

myth

of

search for a lost

god

is found alike at

Ugarit

(Anat

and

Baal),

in

Hittite

(Telepinus),

and

in

classical

Greece

(Demeter

and

Kore).

In all these

cases the

lost

one is the

spirit

of

fertility,

and

therefore

must be

found and

recovered-till

next

year -in

the

end. If

the

search

of Cadmos for

Europa

is

original

and

integral,

it

must

surely

be

of

the

same

type. Europa

is

only

the

sun-goddess,

as

such

quite

simply,

for the

immediate

calendar

purpose

of

this

myth,

but

the

functions

of

bronze-age gods

are never

as

simple

and

clear-cut

as

that:

as

a

great royal

goddess

of

Crete,

the

divine

queen

of

Knossos,

she is

properly,

if

cumbrously,

'the

aspect

of the

fertility-goddess

embodied in

the

sun',

just

as Artemis

and

her

avatars are

'in

the

forest',

and

the

oldest

Aphrodite,

sprung

from

the sea-foam on the fall

of

the

seed

of

Heaven,

'in

the

sea'

(the

exact

equivalent

of

Ugaritic

Asherah).

If

Cadmos then

ever in

fact set out in

search of

her,

he must

certainly

have run her to

earth

in

Crete

in

the end.

The

myth

of

Cadmos of Thebes on

the other hand

begins

simply

at

the point where a wandering man arrives, following or driving a cow

with

a

sacred

mark,

to win a wife

and found

a

city.

It has a close doublet

in the

foundation-myth

of

Colophon,

also traceable to

Delphi,

where

'Ragged

son of

Pot'

(Rakios

of

Lebes)

arrives

from

nowhere

to

marry

the

weeping

Manto,

daughter

of

Teiresias. The roots

of

this lie some-

where

far back in

neolithic

Europe,

for

we find

the three main

persons-

ragged

man,

weeping

maid,

and the

cow 'with

the

crumpled

horn'-even

turning up

in

our

English

nursery rhyme

of the House that

Jack

Built.

It

is

the

myth

of the

founding

of the

first

'city'

ever,

by

the

fertility god

and goddess and their magic cow; it has nothing whatever to do with

Europa

and

Cadmos,

the sun

goddess

and

god

of

Minoan Crete.

Perhaps

Agenor,

however,

was the

Theban's

original

father?

In the

astronomical

context

it is

tempting

to

equate

Ariadne and

Phaidra

with

the

constellation

Gemini,

but I think

this would be

wrong.


6/8

64

THE

MYTH

OF

EUROPA

AND MINOS

In the first

place,

since Minos has the

sun-goddess

both for

mother

and

for

wife,

he is

surely likely

to have her

for

daughter

too-and so he

plainly

has in Phaidra

('beaming,

especially

of

luminaries');

while

Ariadne was clearly recognized even in classical times as an avatar of

Aphrodite.

In

the

second,

there is a

strong

hint

in

the

Odyssey

that

the

two

daughters

should

really

be three:

c~aSprlv

-rE

-TTp6KpiV

E

i

OV

KCKaAV

T'

Api&lvilv.

(Od.

xi.

321)

Procris

in

classical

myth

is the

wife of

Cephalos

and located

in

Attica;

as such she

is

made

daughter

of

Erechtheus.

Classical

versions,

e.g.

that

in

Apollodorus

Bib.

ii.

15. I,

contain

extraordinary

and

revolting

details

which seem

to have been

worked

up

from

something

primitive

to

make

an Alexandrian novelette. The

points

which seem relevant here are,

however,

that

she

was

a

huntress;

that

she

spent part

of

her life at

least

with

Minos,

as

a

rival

of

Pasiphae

for

his

love;

that

she

received,

either

from him

or from

Artemis,

a

spear

that never missed its

mark

and a

hound that

never lost its

quarry,

which she

gave

in turn to

Cephalos;

that

Eos was

her rival

for

the love

of

Cephalos,

and that on Eos'

instigation

he killed

her

by

mistake with

her

own

spear.

This

looks like a confused Athenian version

of some

originally

Minoan

(or perhaps

rather

Cycladic)

myth

about

the

rivalry

of the

sun-goddess

and Artemis for

the love

of

the same

hero. Eos is

evidently

the

only

goddess,

as

such,

who

can

represent

the

Aegean

sun-goddess

on

the

Greek-speaking

mainland. The

gifts

of Procris

can

only

be

proper

to

Artemis

herself;

it

is

interesting

to have

here

an Artemis who hunts

with

the

spear,

as in

Minoan-Mycenaean

art,

instead

of the

bow.

This is

only

one

example

of

a

myth-theme

which

appears

again

and

again

in

Crete,

the

Cyclades,

and

the Saronic

gulf.

There are

two

ver-

sions.

More

often,

the

rejected goddess

kills her successful rival-who

must therefore

appear

as

a

mortal heroine

(e.g.

Artemis-Procris

here);

her

killer

may

also

do

so,

or

may

retain

her divine

identity.

Less

often,

she

kills the hero

himself;

in

this

case both

goddesses appear

as

such.

The

really

strange

feature

is that

the

goddesses

are

always

two

out of

the

Od.

ix.

321

triad-Sun,

Artemis,

Aphrodite-but

they may

be

any

two,

and either

may play

either role.

Two

fragmentary

versions

appear

in

Od.

xi.

322-5, perhaps incorrectly

welded

together.

First

we

are

told

that Theseus would

lead Ariadne to

Athens,

but never

enjoyed

her ..

.;

the

completion

of

this,

in

classical

Athenian tradition, is that he deserted her in Naxos and took Phaidra

in

her

place-for

which,

in

Euripides'

Hippolytos,

Aphrodite

duly

in

effect

kills

Phaidra.

Then we

are told:

'for Artemis slew

Ariadne

in

Dia,

on

the

evidence

of

Dionysos.' Dionysos

here

is the Cretan Master

of

Animals,

perhaps

hero rather than

god,

and

in

the Athenian

myth

he


7/8

THE MYTH OF EUROPA AND MINOS

65

finds

Ariadne

in

Naxos,

deserted

by

Theseus,

and takes her for wife.

Presumably

in the

original

Cretan

myth

he boasted of this to his

rightful

mistress

Artemis,

who then

killed Ariadne.

(Notice

that Dia

perhaps

corresponds to Dione, in Homer mother of Aphrodite, as do Cythera and

Cyprus

to

her usual

titles;

in these

myths

she is

always fundamentally

a

sea-goddess.)

A

Corinthian

version

appears,

much

disguised,

attached

to

Jason

in

Euripides'

Medea. Medea is the

sun-goddess

(granddaughter

of

Helios,

her

father,

like

Europa's,

lord

of

the eastern

shore),

Glauce

lady

of

Corinth

is

Aphrodite

with an

epithet

of the sea for

name;

so the Athen-

ian

roles of Phaidra and Ariadne are reversed.

The

simplest

version

of the other form

belongs

to Delos: Orion the

hunter deserted Artemis for Eos, for which Artemis killed him. This

reverses

the Athenian roles of Procris and Eos. Whether

Orion the

hunter

is

yet

to

be identified with the constellation

is not

clear,

but

in

the

bewildering

kaleidoscope

of

shifting

personalities

among

these

Aegean

gods

it

is

quite possible.

The

Master

of

Animals lurks behind

Cephalos

and

Dionysos

and,

in

some Procris

versions,

Minos

himself,

so

he

may

well do

so

behind

Asterios as

well.

The

original

Troezene version was

presumably

that

Hippolytos

de-

serted

Aphrodite

for

Artemis,

and

Aphrodite

herself sent the sea-monster

to kill him. But Euripides, who was clearly fascinated by the permuta-

tions of this

myth,

has

deliberately

welded

this

and the Theseus version

together

(with

the

Potiphar's

Wife

theme thrown

in for

good

measure)

so that

Aphrodite-Ariadne

takes

simultaneous

revenge

for her

wrongs

on

Sun-Phaidra

and

Theseus,

Artemis and

Hippolytos

all

together.

Only

Dionysos,

in

an Athenian

tragedy,

is

beyond

her

power-but

he at least

did

prefer

her,

even

if he afterwards

betrayed

her.

Doubtless other

versions

may

still be

found,

or

once existed.

The

theme

perhaps

contributed

something

to

the

Judgement

of

Paris,

but

in

that all three goddesses

improperly

appear

together, and the Sun and

Artemis have been

replaced

by

the

Mycenaean royal

goddesses,

Hera

Queen

of Heaven

and

Athene

the

shield-goddess.

This curious

myth-complex

is

perhaps

of little

interest

in

itself,

but

I

have discussed it

at

some

length

as evidence for the cult of

a

prehellenic

sun-goddess

in

the

presumed

area of

the

Minoan

'empire'-Crete,

the

Cyclades,

Attica,

and the Saronic

gulf.

I

have

found no variant in

the

Mycenaean

Peloponnese,

as

yet.

One

remaining

feature of the

Pasiphae

version of

Europa

is

worth

noticing.

It is clear that this is in fact an Athenian distortion of the true

Cretan

myth,

almost a deliberate

parody, inspired by

a

hostility

to

'Minos'

with

its

roots

deep

in

immemorial folk-tradition. How far its

details are the deliberate invention of

tragedians

is hard to tell

(but

surely

3871.1

F


8/8

66

THE MYTH OF EUROPA

AND

MINOS

at least the

wooden

cow?);

but

there seems

no

reason to

doubt that at

some remote

period

Athens

was

subject

to

kings

of Knossos

and was

compelled

to

supply young

athletes,

of

both

sexes,

to

be trained

for

the

bull-dance. But this does not in itself explain the substitution of Posei-

don

for Zeus

as

god

of the sacred

bull,

nor

the

motif

of

Minos'

cheating

over

the

sacrifice.

I have

already

pointed

out

(Greece

&

Rome,

N.S.

xii,

no.

I

[1965])

that

exactly

the same theme

of Poseidon's

anger

at

being

cheated of his due

by

a

king

is

found

in

the

myth

of Laomedon of

Troy,

and that there it

can

be

confidently

connected with

a

genuine

tradition

of the

Troy

VI

earthquake.

Here

the

implication

is

surely

the same. But the tradition

is distorted

or

disarranged

as

we

have it-it

hardly

makes sense to make

the Athenian tribute to the cruel Minotaur the result of a disastrous

earthquake

in

Crete

itself,

which

would

surely

be

rather the

occasion for

Athens

to revolt and end it.

And

in

any

case

Knossos

seems

to have had

so

many

great earthquakes

that

there

is no

way

of

linking

the Athenian

tradition

with

any particular

one. All we

can

say

is

that

Athens

always

remembered

a

great

Cretan

earthquake,

and

mixed

it

up

inextricably

with the

Minotaur tradition

since

it too

went

to

prove

how

very

wicked

Minos

was. What

Minos

really

did

to

enrage

the

Earthshaker was

of

course

unknown,

but

it was safe to assume

with him that

it would be

something

to do with

bull-sacrifices,

and would

certainly

be

something

both

as mean

and as

stupid

as it was

wicked.

VERSION

Mr.

JonesI

'There's been an accident 'they said,

'Your servant's

cut

in

half;

he's

dead '

'Indeed '

said

Mr.

Jones,

'and

please

Send me the

half that's

got

my

keys.'

HARRY GRAHAM

'Accipe,

vera

loquor,

caedem,

Damasippe,

cruentam;

'Membra

iacent

famuli

dimidiata

ui '

Nuntius

haec.

dominus

dictis

immobilis,

'esto:

Quae

retinet claves

pars

referenda

meas '

HERBERT

H.

HUXLEY

x

Mr.

Jones

is

reprinted

from

Ruthless

Rhymes

for

Heartless

Homes

by

Harry

Graham,

by

kind

permission

of

the

publishers,

EdwardArnold

Ltd.

Andrews, 1969, The Myth of Europa and Minos (1)

Documents

Transcript of Andrews, 1969, The Myth of Europa and Minos (1)