Lampe à huile réprésentant l'enlèvement d'Europe

Lthe medallion of this oil lamp is decorated with a relief depicting the kidnapping of Europa. In this mythical episode well known to the Romans, Jupiter falls in love with a young girl, Europa, transforms himself into a bull in order to approach her, and then abducts her to rape her. A similar outcome is found in many myths modestly called "love of Jupiter". The Romans were not moved by the fate of the young girls who were his victims, and the images erase all the brutality of these stories. For a modern spectator on the contrary, more easily sensitive to the underlying violence, these scenes are disturbing. This discrepancy in reception shows the evolution of sensibilities and, therefore, of the very definition of violence from antiquity to the present.