Hannah Sorscher (Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome)
Formatted title: Agency, Knowledge, and Consent in Moschus' Europa
Most studies of Moschus’ Europa claim that the heroine consents to or even invites her abduction and rape by Zeus. Her flower-picking (28–36, 62–71) is taken as a sign of sexual availability, and her petting of Zeus disguised as a bull (95–96) is read as “foreplay” (Fantuzzi and Hunter). The poem is full of erotic diction and intertexts, and as a result, scholars have argued for mutual desire between Europa and the bull (Gutzwiller, Schmiel, Campbell, Fantuzzi and Hunter, Höschele, Kuhlmann, Sistakou). Yet the poem’s details do not show Europa consenting to abduction. I argue that Europa’s experience, as Moschus presents it, does not lead her to expect, much less yearn for, abduction and rape by Zeus in the form of a bull.
Close philological reading, informed by feminist reader-response theory (e.g. Fetterley) and narratological technique (e.g., Booth, de Jong), reveals Europa’s (in)experience. I trace her lack of agency and knowledge, from confusion and fear after a prophetic dream, to the alienating trauma of abduction. Waking from her dream, Europa feels a vague desire, but also fear and mystification (10, 20, δειµαλέην; 16, δειµαίνουσα; 17, παλλοµένη κραδίην; 23, ἀνεπτοίησαν). The dream is read as prophetic by the external audience, but not by Europa herself, who hopes for a good outcome and leaves it in the hands of the gods (27). Her embossed basket depicts the story of her ancestor Io, but the disordered images of a cow crossing the sea do not prepare her for Zeus’ trick. When he captures her, we are told she “kept calling out to her dear companions, stretching out her hands” (111–12, φίλας καλέεσκεν ἑταίρας | χεῖρας ὀρεγνυµένη). Her reaction is fearful, astonished, miserable: “Alas, I am greatly unfortunate!” (146, ὤµοι ἐγὼ µέγα δή τι δυσάµµορος). Even as he supernaturally speeds her over the ocean, she recognizes neither the god nor his intentions, considering herself “alone” (148, οἴη).
Europa’s intertextual models (the abducted Persephone and Helen; the transformed Io; the dreaming Nausicaa, Medea, and Atossa) have long been used to argue that she understands and agrees to her fate (e.g., Campbell, Schmiel, Gutzwiller, Kuhlmann, Höschele), but these women’s stories provide only ambiguous precedent for her state of mind. Such intertexts increase the effect of foreshadowing for Moschus’ knowledgeable readers, but are not guides to Europa’s emotional state. I suggest that these intertexts and the erotic language hinting at her willingness should be read as dramatic irony highlighting her ignorance.
My reading focuses on the experience of this victim within the text, not conflating the knowledge of a reader with that of an internal character. Moschus’ language and narratological framing give no indication that Europa desires to be raped; indeed, the poem shows explicitly that she experiences her abduction as frightening and alienating. I offer a new, feminist perspective on Europa, based in philology. Moschus’ erotic, playful epyllion on a well-known myth also features the trauma of a young woman victimized by powerful forces beyond her control.