Did Europe got it's name from the ancient Greek myth Europa? Where Zeus fell in love with her disguised himself as a cow and then kidnapped her?
It did, although not so directly.
It was usual for Ancient Greeks to associate regions with a progenitor, who was a mythological figure, so as to explain the differences between different people and genealogies. While Europe was of Greek descent according to the myth, she was a princess of Phoenicia. Zeus kidnapped her and took her west to the island of Crete, where she became its queen and progenitor (she was the mother of King Minos). It’s interesting that the selection of Crete might indicate some kind of awareness Ancient Greeks had that Crete was one of the very first places in Europe / the West with advanced civilisation. In any case, in the Homeric epics the name Europe is used broadly for the land west of the Aegean Sea. That includes the Greek mainland and perhaps the Balkans and East Europe. However, as it is evident in the maps of Anaximander in the 6th century BC, the definition of Europe had expanded to include more of the western parts of the continent.
The potentially first map of the known world is attributed to Anaximander (6th century BC).
So, the knowledge on this map apparently was passed on to the Romans and most of the continent eventually. Therefore, Western Europeans most likely adopted the definition of the Greeks for the region and it’s not that they took it directly from the kidnapped mythological princess.
By the way it was also the Romans who changed the character’s name into Europa as in Greek it is the same with the continent’s name: Ευρώπη (Europe - Greek pronunciation is Evrópi) .
Setting the myth aside and trying to find a more down to earth approach, it is not yet certain why Greeks called Europe as such. Ευρώπη is a compound name from the adjective ευρύς (eurus or eurys, pronounced evrís) and the suffix -ώπη (-ope) which comes from the roots of the words for vision, eyes, looking (i.e compare with optics, ophthalmology, optometry etc). Historians and linguists are basically at a loss because they don’t yet understand why that name would be associated with the continent. Regarding the mythological princess, her name can mean that she had wide, large eyes or that her eyes were widely set on her face or that she had a wide face (as the Greek word for face has the same root, πρόσωπο - prósopo, literally meaning “frontal look”). That’s all well for her but why would the continent be called that? This is unclear and it is important because it’s mythology that explains real life, not the other way round. This is just my personal speculation but I believe the true name might have the meaning of “wide view”. In Greece, there are locations which have similar names, the most notable being Ancient Europos in Macedonia, Northern Greece. More locations had been named as such in colonies during the Hellenistic era, i.e there is one in Syria. If it was such a popular name for locations and towns, I believe the name described the settlement as having wide, expanding views and potentially good visibility against invaders. Or maybe that it was widely structured itself and expanded before the visitor’s eyes. The more I think of it, the more obvious it gets and it pains me that acclaimed scientists fight over why a continent has wide eyes or names itself after a woman raped by a horny god. It almost certainly has little to do with it in the grand scheme of things. The way Greece is a narrow peninsula, progressively widening towards its north and then the Balkans and Central Europe widening even more could possibly be the reason why anything from Greece’s viewpoint and farther north was called “wide looking”. Besides, if we judge from Anaximander’s map, it is obvious Greeks in the 6th century BC thought Europe was the largest continent as they had explored Africa (Libya) and Asia far less (they probably gave up in Sahara and the Middle East). Therefore in the Greeks’ perception, Europe indeed appeared like a wide, expanding land. By the Hellenistic era, where they had explored more and the knowledge was certainly far better, I assume the name had stuck anyway and did not change. I don’t know when exactly Europeans “officially” embraced the term but I believe the inspiration was historical (the ancient maps) and not mythological.
Ancient Europos. I suspect it is not coincidental at all that it is so flat with so wide openings to the horizon from all sides. This would be notable enough to be named after, as so flat and widely mountain-less areas are rare in the Greek terrain.
In conclusion, my speculation is that the myth somehow attempted to interpret the procession of advanced civilisation (or maybe just Greek presence) from East to West, and the flourishing of Greeks there like Europe eventually did with Zeus’ gifts and sons. Even if I am totally off, I still believe it makes more sense if the mythological connection was attempted after the name Europe was already used by at least a number of Greeks as a geographical term and not that Europeans read Europe’s story and were like “seems like the perfect name for our continent”. Again, mythology is the one observing and interpreting the already existing world.
