What is Europe?

Europe as a geographical concept

Europe as a political geography

Europe as a cultural geography

Europe as a mythical geography

Europe as a historical geography

European Topography The Urals as a dividing line?

Blue: EU member only Orange:NATO member only Purple:member of bothEuropean Union and NATO

Linguistic map of Europe pre-1914

Religious map of Europe

The three sons of Zeus and Europa were Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon who established law on earth, and were rewarded with positionsOf the three judges of the dead in the underworld.King Minos was the ruler of Crete and employed Daedalus, who was known as the archetypalCraftsman, and whose works were said to be so lifelike that they were tinged with divinity. AmongOther things, he is known for having built the labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. To prevent him from Building anything similar anywhere else, Minos tried to imprison Daedalus on Crete.Daedalus and his son Icarus fled from Minos by building wings held together with wax. Daedalus made it to Sicily, where he was pursued.Here, Daedalus devised a plan and killed King Minos by funneling boiling water or oil onto him in a bath. This is an excellent metaphor for the Renaissance, since it tells the story of old Greek cultureComing West from the Levant and eventually to Italy. Europa’s children represent the ideal of law and the state, which can be seen as a metaphor for the rise of the nation-state. Minos’ failed attempt to control, and then capture Daedalus, and his eventual defeat can be seen as a metaphor for the triumph of new science and technology over old institutions, and for the establishment of new inventions and traditions In art and science.

The Black DeathReduced the world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 – 375 million

In much of Mediterranean Europe, the plague killed around 75 – 80% of the population

In England and Germany, the death rate was only around 20%

In the Middle East, the death rate was around 1/3, and 40% in the Nile valley.

The Triumph of Death -Pieter Breughel c. 1562

Flagellants

Dance of Death by Hans Holbein, 1491

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESwVy-23ynA

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,How little that which thou deniest me is ;It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee,And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.Thou know’st that this cannot be saidA sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;Yet this enjoys before it woo,And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two ;And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more than married are.This flea is you and I, and thisOur marriage bed, and marriage temple is.Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met,And cloister’d in these living walls of jet.Though use make you apt to kill me,Let not to that self-murder added be,And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou sincePurpled thy nail in blood of innocence?Wherein could this flea guilty be,Except in that drop which it suck’d from thee?Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thouFind’st not thyself nor me the weaker now.‘Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me,Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

–John Donne, The Flea (ca. 1610)