This bronze 1993 sculpture called "Europe" depicts a woman holding the letter "E" in the form we have come to know as the symbol for the Euro currency. The heads of a man and woman are seen below her in an unspecific wave.
Although there is no information at the site about the piece, an online search reveals that the artist is Belgian sculptor May Claerhout. And the artist's webpage (
visit link) reveals that the woman is intended to represent the Goddess Europa after which the continent is named.
"Europa, according to the legends the goddess that was kidnapped by Zeus in bull-shsape, after whom we named our continent, is of course depicted as a woman.
A woman who is litarelly carried by an emerging spiral of men and women. Recognizable at first, who gradually morfs into a dynamic mass.
A woman supporting her one hand on this mass and at the same time also being a part of it..
High above everyones head in her right hand she holds the European "E" which is both the symbol of the Euro aswell as a sign of the unity and the interwoven connection of all the European People and Nations."
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"In Greek mythology Europa ... was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a white bull was a Cretan story; as Kerényi points out "most of the love-stories concerning Zeus originated from more ancient tales describing his marriages with goddesses. This can especially be said of the story of Europa".
Europa's earliest literary reference is in the Iliad, which is commonly dated to the 8th century BCE. Another early reference to her is in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, discovered at Oxyrhynchus. The earliest vase-painting securely identifiable as Europa, dates from mid-7th century BCE."
As for Jupiter's Moon, Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Europa ...is the sixth closest moon of the planet Jupiter, and the smallest of its four Galilean satellites, but still the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and possibly independently by Simon Marius around the same time. Progressively more in-depth observation of Europa has occurred over the centuries by Earth-bound telescopes, and by space probe flybys starting in the 1970s.
Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and probably has an iron core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is composed of water ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System. This surface is striated by cracks and streaks, while cratering is relatively infrequent. The apparent youth and smoothness of the surface have led to the hypothesis that a water ocean exists beneath it, which could conceivably serve as an abode for extraterrestrial life. This hypothesis proposes that heat energy from tidal flexing causes the ocean to remain liquid and drives geological activity similar to plate tectonics.
The Galileo mission, launched in 1989, provided the bulk of current data on Europa. Although only fly-by missions have visited the moon, the intriguing characteristics of Europa have led to several ambitious exploration proposals. The next mission to Europa is the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), due to launch in 2022."