Tracing the Line of Europa
Migration, Genealogy, and the Power of Holy Origins in Ancient Greek Narrative Knowledge and Cultural Memory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7796848 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Almut-Barbara Renger (North-West State Technical University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 356-374 |
| Publication date | 2014-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History and Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02757206.2013.832240 |
| OpenAlex | W2022851622 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 28 |
This essay explores the place of the mythical heroine Europa in the narrative knowledge and cultural memory of ancient Greece and modern Europe. Early Greek sources make reference to several women named Europa, only one of whom is Agenor's (or Phoenix's) daughter abducted by Zeus who made her the member of a divine lineage. However, during the fifth-century BCE, the diverse "Europa" figures came to be identified with the Phoenician princess; and the foundations were laid for the abduction story to take on its modern notion as founding myth of Europe. This elevation to founding myth can, in part, be attributed to Europa's membership in a family of eponymous founders. From the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods, Europa's kin gradually grew as various myths were integrated with each other—myths, which shaped identities by creating memory through storytelling. Mythical family bonds came to be seen as biological facts and served both to consolidate local identities and to affirm a Panhellenic identity in times when inner and outer boundaries had to be negotiated as a consequence of migration, colonization, or warfare. The high degree of migration and the dense genealogical network in the narratives of Europa's kin allowed many different groups to lay claim to this narrative knowledge and in doing so, created new myths and cults, interpretations and evaluations of a family well-established in the Greek mind on account of its holy origins. Thus foundation myths surrounding Europa helped to define cultural and ethnic space shaped by migration and the dialectics of unity and plurality. As such, these myths remain relevant to Europe today
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Collective memory · Genealogy · Identity (music · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Power (physics · Storytelling · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Philosophy
Two Victorian Egypts of Herodotus
‘Romantic Poet-Sage of History’
Herodotus as Anti-classical Toolbox
Herodotus’s Travels in Britain and Beyond
From Ethnography to History
George Grote and the ‘Open-hearted Herodotus’
Herodotus and the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War
Herodotus in the Long Nineteenth Century
Imagining Empire through Herodotus
The Hesiodic catalogue of women
Cultural Memory and Early Civilization
The Invention Of Tradition
Ethnic images in classical antiquity
Inventing the barbarian
Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity
Zeus
Barbarians in Greek Comedy
Early Greek Myth
Ritualized Friendship and the Greek City
The Associations of Classical Athens
Mixed Marriages at the Frontiers of the Early Greek World
Inventing Europe
Concepts of Europe in the Early and High Middle Ages
The social construction of reality
Greek mythography in the Roman world
Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity
Barbarians in Greek Comedy
Between East and West
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |