Post
by RobinLondon » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:31 pm
Aha! I've just come to a possible answer. I just found this on an EU info website a few seconds ago:
Who was Europe?
The continent Europe is named after a person from Greek mythology. Europe was a princess and according to the myth she was abducted by the god Zeus (King of the Greek gods) one day when she was walking down the beach. On this occasion Zeus had transformed himself into a beautiful white bull. Zeus convinced the beautiful young girl to get on the back of the bull and swam to the Greek island of Crete. Here he transformed again and seduced her. Zeus and Europe had three sons, who all became kings.
How lovely. Really I'm just slacking off here at work on a lazy summer Friday afternoon (Don't hold that against me, Home Office!). But how nice to learn some Greek mythology as a reward for my sloth, even if the story is a bit dodgy by modern standards.