By Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology . Europa was carried off from Phoenicia to Crete , and was never found by the Phoenician relatives who sought her. Some say that the father of this Phoenician princess was Agenor 1, but others say that it was Phoenix 1, who some claim was her brother. Agenor 1 was by birth an Egyptian, but he departed to Phoenicia and reigned there. If Phoenix 1 would be considered to be the father of Europa, everything would amount to the same, because Phoenix 1, after whom Phoenicia is called, is said to be the son either of Agenor 1 or of Belus 1, and we would, also in this way, arrive to Io .
Nothing is known about Europa's presumptive mothers.
The Bull Some say that Zeus turned himself into a Bull, mounted Europa on his back and conveyed her through the sea from Phoenicia to Crete . But others say that the Bull who carried Europa was the same Cretan Bull that Heracles 1 enjoined in one of his Labours , which in turn could be the same Bull, that was sent by Poseidon to King Minos 2 of Crete , and that later, consorting with the king's wife Pasiphae, became the progenitor of the Minotaur . The search for Europa When Europa disappeared on the back of the Bull Agenor 1 sent out his sons in search of her, ordering them not to return until they had found their sister. And that is how Cilix, Europa's brother, ended up in Cilicia in Asia Minor, a region called after him, where he became king after giving up the search. Cadmus Cadmus , another of Europa's brothers, went with his mother Telephassa to Thrace and stayed there for some time, before coming to Boeotia, where he founded the city of Cadmea, which was later called Thebes .