On Famous Women

From these events, it is clearly evident how the fable took its origin—the one that tells how Mercury drove the herds with him to the shore and Jupiter, having turned into a bull, carried away the maiden Europa to Crete while she was at leisure The author is applying a "Euhemerist" interpretation, suggesting the myth of the bull was a poetic veil for a historical abduction by a king or a ship.. However, the ancients disagree on the timing of this abduction. For those who place it in a more ancient age say it happened while Danaus was reigning at Argos; others wish it to be during the reign of Ogyges OCR reads "Ocāsio," likely a transcription error for Ogyges, a legendary primeval king.; and finally, some place it under King Pandion while he was ruling the Athenians—which seems to coincide with the times of Minos, the son of Europa. Some simply hold that she was ravished by Jupiter, and that she afterwards married Asterius, the King of the Cretans, and bore him sons: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. Most say these were the sons of Jupiter, with some asserting that Asterius and Jupiter were one and the same person.

While this dispute may be left to others, many prefer for Europa to be famous for her marriage to such a great god. Furthermore, some affirm that—whether because of her extraordinary nobility (for the Phoenicians, through many merits, were more famous than others for the standing of their ancestors), or perhaps out of veneration for her power and her husband, or for the sake of her sons who were kings, or even by Europa's own exceptional virtue—the third part of the world was named Europe forever after her name. I certainly judge her a woman distinguished by virtues, not only because of the name granted to a part of the world, but also because of a remarkable bronze statue dedicated to the name of Europa by the illustrious philosopher Pythagoras original: "a pictagora illustri phō" (philosopho), though it is now lost.

Concerning Libya, Queen of Libya. XIII.

Libya, as the most ancient authors hold, was the daughter of Epaphus, King of the Egyptians, by his wife Cassiopeia. She married Neptune—that is, a foreign and powerful man whose personal name has not come down to us The author explains that "Neptune" was likely a historical seafaring prince rather than a literal god of the sea.—and by him she bore the monstrous Busiris, who was later the tyrant of Upper Egypt. His magnificent works are believed to have been consumed by the passage of years, but that they were once very great is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that she was held in such high regard among...