Tiberius, AE 20mm, Amphipolis in Macedon, Europa riding astride a bull (Zeus)
On a beach in Sidon a bull was aping a lover’s coo. It was Zeus. He shuddered, the way he did when a gadfly got him. But this time it was a sweet shuddering. Eros was lifting a girl onto his back: Europa. Then the white beast dived into the sea, his majestic body rising just far enough above the water to keep the girl from getting wet.........Trembling Europa hung on to one of the bull’s long horns. Boreas spotted them as they ploughed through the waves.
Europa could see no end to this crazy sea crossing. She guessed what would happen to her when they hit land again. And she shouted to the wind and water: “Tell my father that Europa has been carried off by a bull – my kidnapper, my sailor, my future bedmate, I imagine.” She was going to call to Boreas too, ask him to lift her up on his wings, the way he’d done with his own bride, Oreithyia, from Athens. But she bit her tongue: why swap one abductor for another?
Augustus, AE 20mm, Amphipolis in Macedon, Europa riding astride a bull (Zeus)
