Europe: Myths, mappings, and meaning

Understood historically, culturally, politically, geographically, or philosophically, the designation “Europe” conjures up as much controversy as it does consensus. Much of the contention surrounding the idea of Europe would seem to draw from and amplify the original mysteriousness with which the name “Europe” first came to designate a determinate geographical territory and enter into historical writing. The mythical narrative of Europa suggests an abduction that can be symbolically read in divergent ways as an image of Europe’s historical becoming. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War marked the beginning of a new stage in the formation of European consciousness. The identification of “Europe” with “humanity” became an established framework in the mid- to late 18th and earlier 19th century.