EUROPA, in Grecian mythology, the daughter of Agenor king of Phœnicia, from whom the continent of Europe is said to have derived its name. Her beauty was such that Jupiter himself became passionately attached to her, and, assuming the form of a bull, carried her away on his back over the sea to Crete. Her children, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus, were adopted by Asterius, king of that island, to whom Europa was ultimately married.