Crete, Gortyn, Stater

Legend has it that the city of Gortyn on the island of Crete was the spot of a far-reaching affair: it was here where Zeus, the highest of the Greek gods, impregnated the Phoenician princess Europa after he had abducted her in the guise of a bull. This stater from Gortyn shows Europa wearing a diaphanous chiton sitting in a plane tree; the reverse bears Zeus as a bull.