- The Abduction of Europa
This is the second version mentioned below of Europa and the Bull. Here is a more dramatic version; Europa is taken against her will. She looks back to land where her companions are and half waves her free arm for help. A distant boat sails away, too far in the distance to see her plight.
The subject has an erotic charge, the horns of the bull representing both a mortal danger to her and symbolic of the threat to her chastity. Whether this version or the previous is more suggestive is perhaps a matter of opinion. Either way, Europa is on the crest both of the waters Zeus is stealing her across and of a different destiny than the one she knew a moment ago.