The Myth of Europa: Europe's Universality in the Face of Sexual Difference

Abstract

The myth of Europa, which consists of the rapture of Europa by Zeus disguised as a bull, her rape, and the birth of three sons founding civilizations, is one of the most represented mythological scenes in Western Art, but it has also been the object of study of European philosophers.1 These philosophical discussions on the myth of Europa reveal Europe as a universalizable space, the space of politics par excellence. The central argument of the article is that the depiction of Europe as transcendence and universalizability can only occur through the repression of the movement of rape. Bringing (a feminist) attention to this movement simultaneously uncovers the patriarchal-colonial visions of politics that are sustained by a depiction of rape as irrelevant, desirable, or justified, but also puts forward alternative imaginaries of Europe carried by a depiction of Europa’s rape as a lived experience of suffering. The article concludes by sketching three pledges for a feminist political philosophy of Europe, one that brings attention to the material-bodily character of discourses on and about Europe, the need for intersectional feminist methodologies and visual-political transfers, and the responsibility to craft nonhegemonic images and imaginaries of Europe.