Preface :

Europa, the woman with three faces. In the realm of her artistic and literary portrayal of her, Europa has been at one and the same time the subject of a founding myth, a symbol of majesty and a sculptural entity : personalities, which have in turn given way to one another, superimposed themselves and been cunningly in combat with each other. Europa first appears in an essential myth, which came ENom Asia nearly thirty centuries ago. According to this, she was a Phoenician princess, both timid and triumphant, who was seduced and abducted by Zeus in the guise of a magnificent bull. He, having attracted her, allowed her to climb up on his back and then galloped away with her over the waves to Crete. She married the god, now « returned » among humankind, who sired her numerous royal offspring.One of her sons, Minos was married to the beautiful Pasiphaë, who mated with another bull and gave birth to the Minotaur, a monster, who was relegated to the labyrinth of Daedalus, where he fed on human fleshÄ This ancient theme of abduction, which itself followed on ENom an earlier cult of the « woman of the bull »,overrun the whole of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean Basin. Christianity both rejected and adopted it. The Renaissance revived it and Classicism admired it. It was refined in the century of the Enlightenment and underestimated in the century of the Nation States. In the 20th century, it was given a new dimension under the influence of psychoanalysis, witness to the affirmation of female sexuality and eroticism, symbolic, as it were, of the whole continent's initiatory journey towards a horizon of adventure and mystery. The representation of this goddess, erotic to the bull, has enticed many of the greatest artists, illuminators and printers over the centuries. At times, they have portrayed her as triumphal, romantic, convulsiveÄat others peaceful, rural, of buccolic calm. They have depicted her alone on the high seas, and surrounded by a group of maidens, cupids or sea sprites, but most ENequently, she is with Hermes, the enveigler, the intermediary, instigator of journeys. Depending on the period, Europa is either totally integrated into Europe's history or by contrast, is identifiable in the decorative arts, which gave visual and sensual pleasure to the great of this world. Europe is Europa's heiress. This goddess is still, after all, the symbol of the feminine continent, and she is still being carried away by the divine or demonic forces of a Promethean bull urged on by the force of speed and the power of machines. * * * Set against this first « ravished » Europa, whose maritime ride fills our museums, is Queen Europe, symbol of sovereignity across the continent and indeed across the world as a whole following the discovery of the Americas. Long before, Charlemagne and subsequent emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, upheld by the Papacy, had tried to impose upon the continent an « Imperium » reminiscent of ancient Rome. ENom the Middle Ages onwards, this warrior power was most often portrayed as a helmeted goddess, a sort of Athena Promachos, guarding a Europe threatened by infidels and ENatricidal wars.This military Athena - usurped by Nazism for its own cause &endash; is often replaced by the Queen, raised as a statue with her helmet now a crown and her sword, a sceptre. In later representations, she reappears as the Goddess of Reason, the European princess of secularism of the last three centuries. She it was also, who, during the Renaissance and Classical periods particularly, reigned over the continents, which we see in pictures, monuments, charts and maps of the world portrayed as women coming with their symbols to pay hommage to her, Europa. Henceforth, she appears as a model of wealth, abundance, power and majesty. After almost five centuries as a world power, she is shown reduced to a much simpler expression following the Second World War. Queen Europe has not abdicated, however, and for the last fifty years has been able to present a certain unity of her multiple aspects under a flag of stars. * * * Goddess, Queen, Virgin: geographically, Europe is a statuesque continent with her matrix in the Orient, whence her legacy of Greco-Judeo-Christian culture. When one looks at this long, distinctive silhouette on the map one discovers &endash; a third work of art &endash; a «miracle continent » - and more especially, a feminine continent : a wonderfully scalloped peninsula, subtly irrigated, enjoying a temperate climate, placing all her nations, like parts of her body but which she actually predates, close to the sea and forming a slim, elegant ensemble compared with the mass and corpulence of the other continents(1). The artists of the Renaissance understood only too well that they were dealing with a woman or a crowned virgin. Sebastien Münster, among others, sketched her as an upright statue with her head in Spain, her throat in Gaul, her bust in Germany and her two arms in Italy and Scandinavia. The lowest folds of her long robe stop where they touch the ill-defined borders of Asia, whose flames have often scorched her feet. This feminine continent, whose power at first was centred on Rome, soon advanced beyond the ancient « limes » into the barbarian world and redefined herself when the Mediterranean was split in two as a result of the Moslem conquests. ENom then on, she was torn between the religion of the West and that of the East, which gave rise, under the Ottoman Empire to the « otherness » of the Balkans. Europa, sometimes called Japhetia, is now identified with a continent, who has advanced ten centuries into her history. She has replaced the rather fickle goddess and become the elegant figure, which is to determine the essential spirit of Europe as a whole. Her map with its fluctuating ENontiers and exquisitely sculpted, « human » silhouette shows off her feminity , her diversity and her beauty. Europe, the continent has managed to slip entirely into the work of art, which was Europa's portrait. So here we have her, the Europe of the artists, great writers and musicians: Europa, a triumphant Queen, who is her Spirit and her Reason; Europa, an intrepid heroine, who is her Heart and Faith ; and a Virgin continent, which is none other than the sublime image of Europa's body. * * * Read this book, leaf through the illustrations to better understand and imagine« The metamorphoses of Europa » in the field of poetry and the arts. We have divided the voyage into eight individual stages : each of these is presented as a high quality, self contained synthesis of basic texts supported by an essentiel iconography in which we have tried to include the most important, the most admired pieces ENom the many items in the Alain Roba collection. « The metamorphoses of Europa » endeavours to give a literary and poetic dimension to the ensemble of cited scientific books and the ancient works upon which they are based, and hopes to be able to inspire new artists. In the Third Millenium, let us reserve a space for warmth and beauty in the heart of Europe.   (1) She is « a work of intelligence rather than of nature », wrote Gonzaque de ReynoldÄ« Even on the map, Europe appears to be moving. » * * *

ENom essay to encyclopedia. And so we come to the end of our « first voyage », although for us, the authors, this adventure will never be complete. We think, that, for the first time, we have made available to a vast and often unaware public a sort of synthesis of that which is essentially Europe. We have come to realise, that even in the most cultivated circles, this symbol, the « zenith » of European consciousness is virtually unknown, except by a small and worthy cohort of specialists. Looking through these chapters, we are inclined to think that our readers will finally be awakened to the myth of a character, who both resembles and surpasses us - a myth, which has somehow escaped us and been relegated to the hold of the ship, antiquated and buried away in fanciful imaginings or sophisticated, esoteric studiesÄ Nevertheless, rereading these different passages, we have discovered that each period in the history of Europe furthered one of these essential characters, each time endowing it with a different significance. And it is clear that we have discovered what might be called « The Eight Periods of Europe », periods in which one major art form seems to have taken precedence over the others and, at the time, somehow to have drawn them into its wake. 1/ Ancient Europa, « come ENom Asia » in the form of a heroine or a goddess, was both a mythical and poetic character, and it was Poetry, personified in such wonderful bards as Moschos, Ovid and Lucian, which was the ancient art with lyrism at its core. 2/ In the Middle Ages, when Europa was relegated to the position of an echo of sacrilegeous polytheism, poetry was replaced by the reality of imperial power. Europa became a person : the Christ, who ruled the world ; the Pope, who unified the Catholic, Apostolic Church of Rome and the Emperors, who, ENom the time of Charlemagne till the reign of Charles V and beyond, were the depositories of the Imperium. 3/ Following the period of power displayed by the eminent, « unifying » persons, the 14th and 15th centuries brought to light the « Ovide Moralisé » in which the rule of princes gave way to the reign of symbols and Europa became the Christian Goddess of the illuminators, scribes and printers. She was her role to reveal the « Ancients » to the world of Christian morality with its Heaven of transfigured souls. 4/ Poetry , Person, SymbolÄ In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europa became ornament. She was portrayed as superb, ENenzied or tranquil in the world of painters or raised up as a helmeted goddess or Virgin Queen in statues and sculptures : the abduction, the queen, the virgin, the warriorÄeach had tried and failed to dominate the warring kingdoms, who would claim her for themselves. 5/ With the close of the « Golden 17th Century » and throughtout « 18th Century of the Enlightenment and Sensual Delights », Europa stepped out of the pictures and on to the stage as Actress Supreme. She appeared in comedies, tragedies, operas, cantatas and ballets. She sang, spoke and declaimed in calvacades and at feasts and banquets to the rapture of the spectators of her on-going tragi-comedy. 6/ For the first half of the 19th Century, Europa was put back on the shelf by « Le Génie du Christianisme », the Romantic movement and the power of the exclusive Nation States. The ENench Revolution happened because of Europa, Napoleon wanted to be identified with her and monarchs sought ceaselessly to take her place, until the day when, through the mystical, the erotic and the feminine, Europa turned into a collector's item for a bourgeoisie, which had discovered erotism. 7/ And then the 20th Century involved Europe in bitter wars and Europa mysteriously excelled herself. On the one hand, Nazy Germany adopted Europa in the form of the helmeted Athena, warrior goddess of old ; on the other, modern artists, whether cubist, expressionist, Art Nouveau or Abstract, found in her an avant-garde symbol for power, speed, the unfathomable depths of the hu. Thus Poetry, the Person, the Symbol, the Ornament and Collector's Item together became the Enigma, of which we have to discover the meaning : the emblem for the future ENom the flag of stars of the present.   This dangerous and ambigous couple, Europa and the Bull, forever being reviewed, corrected, replaced, translated and metamorphosed, seems to us to be of such importance, that these collected essays need to be the start of a much more complete work, because Europa is everywhere and often hidden. Hereafter, we intend to publish an annual addendum, integral to this book, composed of information and discoveries contributed by our readers. This will lead to the publication of an « Encyclopédie d'Europe » covering more than 3000 years of Europa's history and disclosing perhaps more than 5000 of her different aspects.