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| La vengeance d'Europe | | Size (HxW) : | 100x80 cm | | Style : | Figurative Style | | Technic : | mixed | | Theme : | Imagination | | Category : | Painting | | Price : | Euros 650 | | Year : | 2018 | | Desc. : | An unpublished episode of the Greek mythologyTo begin with… Europa was a young Phoenician princess, the daughter of Telephassa and Agenor, the Phoenician King of Tyre, now called Sour in Lebanon. One day, as Princess Europa and her attendants were down by the shores of her native city, a white shining bull with a crescent moon-shaped horn appeared. At first she was scared. However she let the bull come near her and even started to caress his flanks. She went so far as to sit on his back when he lay down at her feet. The bull then suddenly got back to his feet and cleaving through the waves ran to the sea. This animal was none other than Zeus who, once again enamoured of a mortal woman, had transformed himself into a bull to approach her. Europa was clinging to his horns and yelling out to her native land as Zeus swam across the sea. A troop of sea deities followed in his wake: Nereids riding dolphins and Tritons blowing on conch shells. He took her to the island of Crete where they stopped in the neighbourhood of the town of Gortyn. There, near a spring, in a wood of willow trees, he made love to Europa. From the coupling, three sons were born, Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. Zeus later married Europa to the Cretan king, Asterion, who adopted her sons. Agenor, seeing Europa had vanished, sent his three sons Cadmus, Phoenix, Cilix, to find her. He ordered them not to come back unless they found her. He was to never see them again. The European continent was named after Europa and the constellation Taurus is a reminder of that divine transformation. EUROPE’S REVENGE Some time later, Europa, who was eager to avenge her family, swore to gratify her resentment by castigating the one who had seduced then abandoned her. She therefore hatched the plan to subdue Greece, the birthplace of Olympus, the kingdom of Zeus. Europa thus conceived a diabolical scheme. She displayed immense charms to co-opt Greece into her own community with the promise of a radiant future. She pretended not to know about her flaws and allowed her to benefit from the generosity of Tyche, the goddess of fortune. And that was how the Hellenes became dependent on international markets and let their debt spiral out of control. The day came when it reached such heights that at last revenge could be wreaked. As she rode on the back of Eyemephys – the latter being transformed into a bull – with the assistance of her most loyal lieutenant, Merkelas, Europa swooped down on Greece and forced her to sacrifice her people. For this purpose, just like a firebug fireman, she slyly suggested that financial assistance should be provided by Eurogroupos. In exchange for the loans, she dictated to Prime Strategos Tsìpras drastic austerity plans which produced disastrous effects on ordinary people. More than 300,000 young people left the country; wages and pensions fell by about 40%; household income dropped by one third; dozens of thousands of businesses closed down; unemployment soared to 20%. Europa left the country on its knees, with 35% of the population below the poverty line. Europa’s revenge was satisfied in another way since she also earned interest on the loans “generously” granted to Greece. And Pheme, the goddess of rumours, followed by her cohort of Media, trumpeted to all the peoples of the earth: “Greece is saved.” Author’s Note: This being a mythological story any resemblance to actual persons or facts is purely coincidental. Brigitte Maillard Cary |
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© All of the images on this website are copyrighted original artworks by their author and are protected by international copyright law. No materials in this gallery may be reproduced, copied, downloaded, or used in any form without written permission of the contemporary artist Brigitte Maillard Cary.
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