, and, borne off, looks back on
the shore she has left; and with her right hand she grasps his horn,
{while} the other is placed on his back; her waving garments are ruffled
by the breeze.

[Footnote 90: _Sidonis._--Ver. 840. Sidon, or Sidonis, was a
maritime city of Phoenicia, near Tyre, of whose greatness it was
not an unworthy rival.]

EXPLANATION.

This Fable depicts one of the most famous events in the ancient
Mythology. As we have already remarked, it is supposed that there were
several persons of the name of Zeus, or Jupiter; though there is great
difficulty in assigning to each individual his own peculiar
adventures. Vossius refers the adventure of Niobe, the daughter of
Phoroneus, to Jupiter Apis, the king of Argos, who reigned about B.C.
1770; and that of Danae to Jupiter Proetus, who lived about 1350 years
before the Christian era. It was Jupiter Tantalus, according to him,
that carried off Ganymede; and it was Jupiter, the father of Hercules,
that deceived Leda. He says that the subject of the present Fable was
Jupiter Asterius, who reigned about B.C. 1400. Diodorus Siculus tells
us that he was the son of Teutamus, who, having married the daughter
of Creteus, went with some Pelasgians to settle in the island of
Crete, of which he was the first king. We may then conclude, that
Jupiter Asterius, having heard of the beauty of Europa, the daughter
of Agenor, King of Tyre, fitted out a ship, for the purpose of
carrying her off by force. This is the less improbable, as we learn
from Herodotus, that the custom of carrying those away by force, who
could not be obtained by fair means, was very common in these rude
ages.

The ship in which Asterius made his voyage, had, very probably, the
form of a bull for its figure-head; which, in time, occasioned those
who related the adventure, to say, that Jupiter concealed himself
under the shape of that animal, to carry off his mistress. Palaephatus
and Tzetzes suggest, that the story took its rise from the name of
the general of Asterius, who was called Taurus, which is also the
Greek name for a bull. Bochart has an ingenious suggestion, based upon
etymological grounds. He thinks that the twofold meaning of the word
'Alpha,' or 'Ilpha,' which, in the Phoenician dialect, meant either a
ship or a bull, gave occasion to the fable; and that the Greeks, on
reading the annals of the Phoenicians, by mis