The end of the school year is now upon us, and I finished up my teaching today with a passage in Latin concerning Europa, the Near Eastern girl who hitched a ride on the back of Zeus disguised as a bull, and ended up in Greece, where she eventually gave her name to the smallest continent in the world.
Have you ever wondered why teenage girls have such an impact on the world of Greek Mythology? Pandora was a teenager; so was Persephone, who went on to become the queen of the dead. Europa was also a teen. And Helen, the cause of the Trojan war, was probably not out of her teens when Paris scooped her up to take back to Troy.
This is the kind of question you can ask-- and get a reasoned answer-- when you write BwP. In fact, now that I'll be traveling to Greece and Cyprus (at which Europa could have waved as she hung on to Zeus with the other arm), you have a unique opportunity to ask questions from someone with an eyewitness perspective.
I'll answer the teenage girl question some day soon. But in the meantime, if you've got a burning desire to know something else, write.
And Paul, I haven't forgotten your question about how much the Greeks believed in their gods.
(image courtesy Lisanne Marshall/vroma)
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