Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre Nicole Haitzinger (Salzburg) She teases with those flashes, yes, but once you yield to human horniness, you see through all that moonshine what they really were, those gods as seed-bulls, gods as rutting swans - an overheated farmhand's literature. Who ever saw her pale arms hook his horns, her thighs clamped tight in their deep-plunging ride, watched, in the hiss of the exhausted foam, her white flesh constellate to phosphorous as in salt darkness beast and woman come? Nothing is there, just as it always was, but the foam's wedge to the horizon-light, then, wire-thin, the studded armature, like drops still quivering on his matted hide, the hooves and horn-points anagrammed in stars. 1 Derek Walcott, Europa (1981) This article analyzes appearances of Europa in ancient myth, tragedy and historiography, as well as resonances of this figure in contemporary theatre. The study combines two lines of thought, both rooted in theatre studies. First, the figure of Europa is specifically defined as female in the multifarious ensemble of our cultural memory - Zeus disguised as a bull abducts the royal Phoenician daughter Europa and carries her off to Crete. Second, the far-reaching and numerous resonances of Europe as myth from Ovid ’ s Metamorphoses. In contrast to the ancient model of female suffering both thoughts remain relevant for understanding stagings of Europa in the present. The topic embodies the contemporary need to empower the feminine through body and voice and will be exemplified using various examples such as Magnificat (2011), Rimini Protokoll ’ s Hausbesuch Europa (2015), Philippe Quesne ’ s Big Bang (2010). This paper analyzes appearances of Europa in ancient myth, tragedy and historiography, as well as resonances of this figure in contemporary theatre. My study combines two lines of thought, both of which are rooted in theatre studies. First, the figure of Europa belongs to a group of characters who are specifically defined as female in the multifarious ensemble of our cultural memory. This fact is often forgotten with respect to Europa although it is not with respect to Medea, Helena, Antigone or Iphigenia. Second, the fate of Aeschylus ’ tragedy Carians with Europa as the main protagonist, which has only survived in fragments, corresponds with the detachment from the character ’ s name. Europe becomes the name of a continent that was not thought to be one. Jacques Derrida turns to Valéry ’ s metaphor to highlight this in his own profoundly lucid Forum Modernes Theater, 31/ 1-2 (2020), 150 - 159. Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.2357/ FMTh-2020-0014 characterization of Europe: “ A cape, a little geographical promontory, an ‘ appendix ’ to the body and to the ‘ Asian continent ’ , such is in Valéry ’ s eyes the very essence of Europe, its real being ” . 2 In addition to the various tropes used to stage Europa in history, philosophy and politics, this figure also continues to perform in the cultural institution of the theatre. Here, I understand the resonance of this character as an echo in a broader sense. In the theatre, Europa, known from the ancient myth and from the tragedy, can be staged and aesthetically experienced in various manners: she can be embodied concretely in a character role as we see in the comédie-héroïque Europe, commissioned in 1643 by the Cardinal Richelieu or she can be a topos as we see in Rimini Protokoll ’ s 2015 Hausbesuch Europa. The role and the topos of Europe can be exemplary defined as two opposing aspects, even though their interrelations predominate in theatre practice. The Conception of Europe as Territory in Herodotus ’ Worldview Herodotus ’ Histories is a paradigmatic turning point within ancient thinking. It marks the moment when historiography gains ascendancy over myth. But of Europe it is plain that none have obtained knowledge of its eastern or its northern parts so as to say if it is encompassed by seas; its length is known to be enough to stretch along both Asia and Libya. [. . .] But as for Europe, no men have any knowledge whether it be surrounded or not by seas, nor whence it took its name, nor is it clear who gave the name, unless we are to say that the land took its name from the Tyrian Europa, having been (as it would seem) till then nameless like the others. But it is plain that this woman was of Asiatic birth, and never came to this land which the Greeks now call Europe, but only from Phoenice to Crete and from Crete to Lycia. 3 While the Histories were written against the backdrop of mythology, Herodotus was visibly committed to providing evidence as the basis for a geographically precise definition of Europe. Nonetheless, certain mysteries prevail. Is the landmass Europe surrounded by sea in all four cardinal directions? How did the formerly nameless land get its name? Herodotus argues that the mythological figure was not an eponym. That Europa was abducted from Asian Phoenicia and transported to the island of Crete, which was not thought to be part of the European continent, by Zeus in the form of a bull. After giving birth to her three sons, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys, she returned to the Asian Lycia. The myth permeates Herodotus ’ logos, although an ambiguous distinction is made between the figure Europa and the territory of the same name. Since antiquity, the performing arts have figured the character and the territory as two distinctly separate entities. Europa ’ s Present Existence “ Is Europe the product of a universal idea, whose contemporary existence can be adequately captured in terms of some earlier figure or trope? ” 4 : Stuart Hall ’ s question in his essay In But Not of Europe. Europe and Its Myths seems to me to be key for understanding Europa as figure from a contemporary perspective. It is possible that the old myths, which not solely derive from Greek thought, produce narratives that invoke cultural memories and are relevant to present times.The capacity to invent Europe without eurocentrism 5 is revolutionizing. This means thinking of models that were already in play at the dawn of European civilization and that are in existence as it decays. Here, symptomatically, Ivan Krastev points to the decay of the European Union - caused either by nationalistic monopolization or fragmenta- 151 Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre tion - which had been long unthinkable. 6 According to Krastev, migrants have become historical actors who will decide on Europe ’ s fate. 7 Thus, at present, the wide-ranging phenomenon of endangered majorities calls into question the viability of a deeply-rooted openness to cosmopolitanism in many parts of Europe. Since the middle of the 1980 s, renationalization, the new global economy, the reconfiguration of global power relationships and the emergence of super power hegemonies, has created a kind of intellectual inversion and attention has focused on probing how that which is exterior to Europe defines and constitutes Europe. Thinkers like Ernesto Laclau (1985), Judith Butler (1993), Jacques Derrida (1991), Achille Mbembe (2017) repeatedly describe how figures and scenarios of migration render an enlarged Europe imaginable. In Sortir de la grande nuit, Achille Mbembe sagely interrogates what appears self-evident, namely that democracy is deeply interwoven with the fate of the specific institutions that constitute borders. 8 In considering the future of democracy, he raises three vital questions. The answers to these questions seem to lead to a certain helplessness in the context of contemporary Europe: (1) Who is my neighbor? (2) How does one treat one ’ s enemy? (3) What about foreigners? 9 Greek thought - whether philosophy, political theory, or theatre - is essentially contingent on that very disputation of these questions. Different paradigmatic answers to these questions regarding the criteria for belonging, hospitality and exclusion criteria are articulated in a variety of ways, framed alternatively either rhetorically or theatrically. These responses attest to either close entanglement with myth as in the case of theatre or distanced entanglement with myth as in the cases of philosophy and political theory. The practice of disruptive theatre is distinct from politics. It complicates the prevailing ideology, whether this is seen as a set of ideas or as a set of worldviews, 10 simply because ideology is only one of the parameters that subtends theatre. Europa as Enigmatic Figure In Greek and Roman thought and even far beyond these, various figures of Europa appear as mutually interdependent without one prevailing, tying her down or distinctly enchaining her. Europa needs to be understood as an inexhaustible and enigmatic trope, modelled variously as a figure in which what is present and what is distant intertwine: it is told again and again, it is depicted and staged. Currently, numerous facets of Europa ’ s trope are established within a theatrical context that accentuates the ambivalence and the ‘ darker side ’ of the myth. These serve to situate ancient Greek culture within a nexus of eclectic interrelations with the Middle East and North Africa. 11 I would like to analyze four models of the figure Europa. These form effectively four tropes from Greek and Roman thought. They remain relevant to understanding stagings of Europa in the present. Thus, I will focus on one specific aspect that relates directly to the topics discussed in this publication. The prototypical scenario, Zeus disguised as a bull abducts the royal Phoenician daughter Europa and carries her off to Crete. This is a constant formula that is embroidered upon in Greco-Roman thought. In Homer ’ s Iliad, for instance, Europa is attributed as the “ daughter of far-famed Phoenix, who bore me [Zeus] Minos and godlike Rhadamanthys ” . 12 After her forced migration, this female who came from somewhere else, is responsible for a new ‘ European ’ dynasty that results from the birth of her son Minos and, as the mother of godlike Rhadamanthys, she is the catalyst for 152 Nicole Haitzinger the drafting of legislation in the underworld. Where does Europa come from in Homer ’ s world? Ancient Phoenicia can be defined geographically as a narrow coastal strip leading from northern Israel through Lebanon to what nowadays constitutes southern Syria. As the confederation of several city states of the Levant, Phoenicia was one of the most important forces linked to migration and colonization in the Mediterranean until the sixth century before Christ. Mark Woolmer ’ s study A Short History of the Phoenicians (2017) highlights specific characteristics that appear particularly relevant to the link between mythical and historical thinking in descriptions of Europe ’ s origins. First of all, Phoenicia was a network of autonomically mercantile city states and as a result, Phoenicians did not distinguish themselves through a joint ethnic identity. Instead, “ they typically defined themselves according to the city state in which they held citizenship (i. e. ‘ I am a man of Byblos ’ or ‘ I am from Tyre ’ rather that ‘ I am Phoenician ’ [. . .]) ” . 13 Second, Phoenicia was a maritime migration and colonization powerhouse with Carthage as the Phoenician colony par excellence. 14 Third, the eclectic cultural and artistic artifacts and practices featured various borrowings from Egypt, Assyria and Syria and they demonstrate the multilayered cultural interrelations in the ancient Mediterranean world. 15 Greek philosophers and historiographers acknowledged the invention of the first alphabet, which is considered to be an independent cultural achievement. This goes back to 1100 years before Christ and migrated to the West and to Greece as a result of maritime expansion. Now, let us return to the figure of Europa in tragedy and epic and how this resonates in contemporary theatre. As some sort of preamble, the painting Il Ratto di Europa and the mythical figure on an antique vase should be visualized here, signed by Assteas and dating back to the fourth century before Christ. 16 Specifically, in the image on the vase, Zeus is depicted as bull who is carrying the abducted Europa across the sea. This motif is not new in the repertoire of the Hellenistic world. Still, the theatricality of actions portrayed on this vase are exceptional. Recent archaeological research accentuates its links to Aeschylus ’ (lost) tragedy Carians 17 built upon three aspects: first, the image of a bull with light fur contrasts with Europa who sits on his back wearing an highly-ornamented dress whose ends - in an exceptionally beautiful way - become the sail. Second, Europa ’ s body is segmented in three: (1) the head turns foreward to the left, that is to say toward the west, in the direction of the still nameless continent; (2) the torso with both arms faces forward, with the left hand holding a cornet and the right hand the sail/ dress; and (3) the lower body and both legs point to the right, that is to say back toward the east and eventually to Phoenician Asia. In this scene, Europa can be seen as a tragic character, a figure torn between West and East, between continents. The additional cast of characters grouped on the front of the vase (Aphrodite, Hermes, Eros, Scylla, the personification of Crete, Photos and Triton) and on the back (Dionysus, the god of theatre, with maenads and satyrs), frame the staged and theatrical representation of the myth. Aeschylus ’ Carians: Europa as Lamenting Mother and Warrior Resonating in Marta Górnicka ’ s Magnificat In Carians, the previously mentioned fragment of an otherwise lost tragedy by Aeschylus, Europa bewails her abduction by Zeus to the detriment of her father in a monologue. As a mortal woman she was forced into marriage and underwent the painful experience of childbirth three times: “ I, a mortal woman, united with a god, gave up the 153 Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre honour of virginity, and was joined to a partner in parenthood; three times I endured a woman ’ s pains in childbirth, and my fertile field did not complain nor refuse to bear to the end the noble seed of the Father. ” 18 In Greek thought, there is a strong equivalence between giving birth and fighting in a battle, between the female pain of labor and the male wound in war, as Nicole Loraux underscores in The Experiences of Tiresias. “ The model for suffering is feminine ” . 19 The intensity of the black pain is associated with pain experienced by women and by warriors who are fatally injured in battle. Tragedy, which functions by destabilizing any kind of representation, complicates gender relations to their very limits. It is no coincidence that Europa ’ s births are, once again, reversed in Aeschylus ’ virtuously ambiguous language. He activates the dual meaning of the words and the equation with military conflict. Europa suffers in childbirth like a warrior suffering from his wounds. “ [S]torm-tossed with anxiety, ” 20 she fears the death of her third son Sarpedon who is fighting in the Trojan War and, in fact, already dead when she gives this prophetic arranged speech: “ My hope is slender, and it rests on the razor ’ s edge whether I may strike a rock and lose everything. ” 21 Europa is a lamenting and martially attributed mother abducted and raped by Zeus, Her first son, Minos, is fated to establish a patriarcal regime by generating an expanding dynasty. The second, Rhadamanthys, is fated to bear responsiblity for the underworld ’ s legislation. The third, Sarpedon, is fated to die in war. On a vase painting from 390 B. C., which Oliver Taplin links to Aeschylus ’ Carians, Europa is portrayed specifically as a figure from tragedy. In a theatrical mechane scene, the winged twins Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) bring Sarpedon, Europa ’ s son who died in Troy, to Lycia in southwestern Asia Minor. There is no doubt that this is a royal Europa. She appears like a queen sitting on a type of throne and dressed in orientally-ornamented clothes with tight cuffs. In Aeschylus ’ tragedy, Europa is presented in the guise of a lamenting queen and martial mother. Deprived of her Phoenician ancestry and honour by Zeus, she faces two constants that characterize Greek civil society: first, the obligation to endure the pain of childbirth in order to preserve the polis and second, the obligation to accept her son ’ s death in battle as legitimate. At least, Aeschylus gives her a voice in his tragedy. . . In Magnificat (2011), the Polish director Marta Górnicka stages a women ’ s choir that bears witness to urgent contemporary need to empowering the feminine through body/ voices. In an interview with Dawid Kasprowicz and Peter Ortmann, Górnicka states that there is no neutral language, no genderless language in culture. There is no language that does not describe women in an ideologised way. For this reason, she chooses to blend different linguistic styles and rhetorical forms. She believes that the policy of hybridization works like a bomb, detonating language and causes an explosion on stage. 22 The rhythm of the Latin verses of the Magnificat and Johann Sebastian Bach ’ s fivepart composition serve to structure the choir comprised of 25 Polish women from different generations and professions. In the Song of Mary from the first century A. D. and in a time of violence, the articulation of that which no one was allowed to voice in public is legitimized by the virgin who is a mother at the same time.In contrast to the predominantly rigid image of Mary as maternal vessel promoted by the Catholic Church, Górnicka ’ s scenario declares Mary an empowered figure an gives her an influential martial voice similar to Europa ’ s in Aeschylus ’ Carians: “ Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles. ” 23 Górnicka ’ s Magnificat (2011) is a polyphonic pop-cultural postopera based upon a complexly interwoven 154 Nicole Haitzinger collage of texts from The Bacchae by Euripides, the Bible, Polish newspapers, recipes, passages from Jelinek, and fragments from the national poet Michiewicz. It is staged vocally and physically through choreographic formations. Górnicka ’ s artistic starting and vanishing point depends on two characters that form a dyad: Mary, who is simultaneously mother of a son whose divinity is disputed and virgin and the wild Agave from The Bacchae, who unknowingly rips her son into pieces in maenadic rage. In European contemporary theatre, the female lament appears in different forms. The sorrow of the mothers, whether Europa or Mary, imposes itself as a revolt against the principles of exclusion. Moschus ’ Europa, or the Fight for Supremacy: “ The Land Opposite ” and Resonances of the (Still) Nameless Europe in Rimini Protokoll ’ s Hausbesuch Europa. In Moschus ’ epyllion Europa, Cypris (another name for Aphrodite) sends a dream to Europa shortly before dawn. At this time it is important to note that in Greek thought dreams were considered specifically realistic and as constituting reality. Two continents compete: “ she saw two continents contend for her, Asia and the land opposite; and they had the form of women. Of these, one had the appearance of a foreigner, while the other resembled a native woman [. . .]. ” 24 The still nameless continent, characterized as foreign and violent in this paradoxal genealogical construction, takes possession of Phoenix ’ s daughter via Zeus. Thus, it seizes the political and cultural supremacy in the Mediterranean area (Europe, Asia, North Africa) and this is legitimized through a number of mythical and dynastic interrelations. What is Europe? Is it a geographical border, a cultural identity, an association of states? In Hausbesuch Europa, theatre collective Rimini Protokoll ’ s initiates the search for artistic answers to these precise questions. According to the dramaturge Imanuel Schipper, achieving a draft of a specific dramaturgy that stages the audience is the main artistic goal in Rimini Protokoll ’ s oeuvre. Hausbesuch Europa, conceived of as “ a performance you can put in your hand luggage ” 25 , can be understood as a deliberate trial testing democracy in a post-democratic Europe. To explain the relationship between politics and aesthetics of Rimini Protokoll, Schipper refers to the description of society, introduced by the sociologist and political scientist Colin Crouch in a polemic gesture in Coping with Post-Democracy (2000). He suggests that democracy can only develop, “ when there are major opportunities for the mass of ordinary people actively to participate, through discussion and autonomous organisations, in shaping the agenda of public life, and when these opportunities are being actively used by them. ” 26 Hausbesuch Europa is theatre that takes place in different European cities in private flats. The host is allowed to invite two friends, thirteen additional guests attend with purchased tickets. They ‘ play ’ at a table covered with a white paper map upon which the European borders are marked in black. A simultaneously futuristic and retro 1980 s style dominates as a so-called “ random generator ” spits out temporally-organized guidelines for the guests who become actors in this performance. The game begins with an explanation of the rules and the guests learn that it is about “ networking between you and your relationship to Europe and the world ” , that is to say it is about the people sitting at the table and, more significantly, about how big a piece of cake you get in the end. 27 The game is structured so that players can reach five levels. Five aspects of the EU 155 Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre treaties, signed in chronological order, serve as the motor for the action. Level 1 is based upon the idea of a European network as articulated in the foundational treaty for what becomes the EU. This treaty was signed in 1951 between six countries (Belgium, France, Western Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Luxembourg), who declared themselves to be the “ European Coal & Steel Community ” . In the preamble, they emphasize the goals: “ to substitute for historic rivalries ” and to unite “ peoples long divided by bloody conflicts ” ; to maintain peace and raise “ the standard of living ” which are the “ common bases for economic development ” . These serves to define the EU is an economic association that promotes peace. 28 The first level consists mainly of questions regarding the border between the private and the political. But, against the backdrop of questions like “ What was the last political issue you had a debate about at this table? ” 29 the players are told to preheat the oven for the cake to 180 degrees. Level 2 takes up the Luxembourg Compromise. This is an agreement from 1966 that establishes “ a universally acceptable compromise ” , agreeing to disagree “ where a country believed that its vital national interests might be adversely affected ” . 30 A matter needs to be discussed until a compromise has been reached In the second phase of the game, guests statistically evaluate questions like “ Who has a job that pays enough to live from it? ” or the question of trust in democracy. 31 A pie chart illustrates the quasiempirically won results and depicts these by percentage. This sets the stage for level 3, which operates on the basis of the first major revision of the founding European treaty, signed by twelve members states of the EU in 1986 in The Hague. This Single European Act, introduced the rule of “ qualified majority ” and did away with the requirement for unanimity in the name of efficiency. It allows players to prevent decision lag. 32 This performance phase of Hausbesuch Europa promotes group decisions. At level 4, two important aspects introduce to competition and dissent: (1) the Dublin Convention from 1990 makes the point-of-entry country responsible for handling applications for asylum and (2) the Treaty of Maastricht from 1992 defines the economic level that countries have to reach in order to enter the European Union. This strategic round of the game is about winning points by making anonymized decisions. Teams are formed grouping people who have shown similarities during the course of the game. They may share, for example, similar beliefs regarding democracy. Each team answers questions like: “ If (the) total budget (of the EU) was divided between the inhabitants of the EU, how much would each inhabitant have to pay [. . .]? ” 33 Depending on the answers they give, teams win or lose points. They may even fight for points by arm wrestling. Each team elects or chooses a representative by number of points. The fifth and final level is devoted to sharing the cake depending on the number of points achieved by each team. This is based on the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) which establishes the status of legal personality for the European Union. At this point, the rule of double majority is also instituted and this prevents small countries from blocking decisions. Now, the participants have to decide if the winning team should be excluded from the distribution of cake or if it should get schnapps. The fully baked cake is cut into smaller and larger pieces and shared according to the number of points each team has reached. Hausbesuch Europa conveys the complex history of the European Union and its conception of democracy as a small comprehensible narrative articulated in different treaties. In the third phase, Moschus ’ small epic is read out about the dream of two continents, the conflict between Asia and the still nameless continent for possession of the 156 Nicole Haitzinger Phoenician girl and the prophecy about the girl ’ s abduction by Zeus in the form of a bull. Like the story of how the EU came to be, Europe ’ s ancient myth of descent bears witness to the struggle for supremacy, regardless of whether this struggle is continental and/ or within European, cultural and/ or economic. Ovid ’ s Metamorphoses: Resonances of Europa and the White Bull as Fiction in Faustin Linyekula ’ s La Création du Monde The resonances of Europe as myth from Ovid ’ s Metamorphoses are numerous and far-reaching. While the motives and the narration in this Latin work are similar to Moschus ’ earlier and shorter Greek epic, the concept of transformation is emphasized more in Ovid ’ s fiction. This Roman poet uses the dynastic interweaving of gods, humans, stars, animals and plants to construct myth in a literary mold. Ovid situates Phoenicia to the left of Maia ’ s star. Maia was transformed into a star in the Pleiades: “ My son [Mercury], always faithful to perform my [Jupiter/ Zeus ’ s] bidding, delay not, but swiftly in accustomed flight glide down to earth and seek out the land that looks up at your mother ’ s star from the left. The natives call it the land of Sidon. ” 34 Zeus appears in form of a white bull: “ His colour was white as the untrodden snow, which has not yet been melted by the rainy south-wind ” 35 , “ quippe color nivis est ” . 36 This white bull comes from a still nameless continent. In the early modern period, the color white is associated with Europa. She is figured with fair skin in paintings and in the performing arts. The institution of this trope of a white Europa is legitimized by a reversal in the interpretation of the myth of Europa found in Ovid ’ s literary work of art. The whitewashing of figures in European theatre is currently staged as topos or theme in many ways. Artistic interpretations of and allusions to this are numerous and varied. For instance, Romeo Castellucci ’ s staging of Schönberg ’ s opera Moses and Aron (2015) uses a light-coloured Charolais bull instead of an abstracted golden calf and this causes a theatrical scandal. In La Création du Monde 1923 - 2012, Faustin Linyekula specifically argues against ballet as mostly ‘ white ’ art. Casting for roles of the so-called ‘ classics ’ in German-language municipal theatre repertories is shifting. Director and staging decisions are increasingly influenced by identity politics. This makes the plurality of European society on stage visible. Signature pieces include Antigone Sr./ Twenty Looks or Paris is burning at the Judson Church by Trajal Harrell and Marlene Monteiro Freitas ’ Bacchae: Prelude to a purge should be seen in this light. Both of these examples interweave ancient tragedy with narratives and motifs like movement and alterity/ foreign-ness (cultural, historical, genre). Pseudo-Eratosthenes ’ Catasterismi: Resonances of Europe Beyond Borders in Philippe Quesne ’ s post-utopian world, Big Bang (2010) Mythological origins of celestial alignment are indicated in the Catasterismi ( “ placing among the stars ” ) and the justification of the zodiac sign Taurus reads as follows: the bull (Zeus) should be placed among the stars because he took Europa from Phoenicia to Crete across the sea, as Euripides says in Phrixus. Others say that the bull is Io ’ s reflection and because of her, Zeus honored the bull. In Greek thought, various versions of the myth are possible. Initially, the model is the one that figured in Euripides ’ lost tragedy. In contemporary theatre, a world without borders from a European perspective is imagined in several ways and utopian scenarios are frequently constructed. Works by 157 Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre the French theatre director Philippe Quesne offer useful examples of this current practice in contemporary theatre. The name of his company Vivarium can be understood as programmatic. It proclaims the ambition to display human and tangible existence through the microcosm of theatre. Big Bang (2010) is his signature piece proposing a new (or returning) and non-doctrinal surreal aesthetic in a period of global political, economical and ecological crisis. Briefly described, Big Bang is: [. . .] as much a gigantic explosion as it a founding theory or a simple book onomatopoeia. The play takes place on a small island, on which a shipwrecked group will remake the world, as they go back to the origins to replay history in an accelerated fashion. The island serves as a frame for a sequence of images, short scenes, small musicals, a quasianatomical study of an unexpectedly transplanted human microcosm. Of course, people and animals, Language and Silence, Everything and Nothing coexist here: the whole river of life, from plankton to postmodernism. 37 Big Bang carefully critiques contemporary society, which is seen as in profound crisis because of globalisation, virtualisation and post-Fordism. It warns that it is at the brink of an (ecological) apocalypse which, however, it not a certainty. The artistic practices used to catalyse a surrealist aesthetic on stage include, among others, the mise-en-scène of the seemingly quotidian. Through these every-day objects, the figures create situations charged with a multiplicity of meanings that emphasize all potential ambiguity. 38 Big Band showcases a post-utopian scenario from an European perspective, offering a window onto a world emerging after its doom, without mentioning the figures or the topos of Europe. This returns us to the Derek Walcott poem that initially framed this discussion. In it, this Caribbean writer underscores the connection between Europe and the stars and describes Europe ’ s identity as alterity. By recognizing ambiguities in how figures are modelled and mobilized in terms of the link between poetic beauty in and decolonial thought, Walcott offers an example of how updating myths about Europe in culture and politics or in contemporary art serve as a means to nourish a sense of identity. As stagings by Marta Górnicka, Rimini Protokoll oder Philippe Quesne/ Vivarium discussed here demonstrate, theatre can serve as the “ caisse de resonance ” , that is to say the sound box and sounding board that amplifies the echos of classical antiquity intimately linking Europa (as a figure) and Europe (as a topos, as territory), without losing sight of their resonance for the present. Notes 1 Nina Kossman (ed.), Gods and Mortals, Modern Poems on Classical Myths, New York 2001, p. 22. 2 Jacques Derrida, The Other Heading Reflections on Today ’ s Europe, Bloomington & Indianapolis 1992, p. 21. 3 Herodotus, The Persian Wars, Volume II: Books 3 - 4, Cambridge 1921, p. 245 and p. 247. 4 Stuart Hall, “’ In But Not of Europe ’ : Europe and Its Myths ” , in: Luisa Passerini (ed.), Figures d ’ Europe, Brussels 2003, pp. 35 - 46, here p. 35. 5 Jacques Derrida, “ Le souverain bien - ou l ’ Europe en mal de souveraineté ” , in: Cités 30: 2 (2007), pp. 103 - 140, here 107. 6 Ivan Krastev, Europadämmerung, Berlin 2017, p. 18. 7 Ibid., p. 28. 8 Joseph-Achille Mbembe, Ausgang aus der langen Nacht, Berlin 2016, p. 117. 9 Ibid., pp. 117 - 118. 10 Hans-Thies Lehmann, “ Aesthetics of revolt? Crossovers between politics and art in new social movements ” , Talk, Berlin 2012, 158 Nicole Haitzinger https: / / www.berlinerfestspiele.de/ en/ aktuell/ festivals/ berlinerfestspiele/ archiv_bfs/ ar chiv_programme_bfs/ foreign_affairs/ ar chiv_fa12/ fa12_programm_gesamt/ fa12_ver anstaltungsdetail_46687.php [accessed 26 June 2018]. 11 Martin Bernal ’ s Black Athena, London 1987, was an key figure and served as the intellectual foundation for this shift in perspective. See also Michael Rice ’ s The power of the Bull, London 1998. Both inform Stuart Hall ’ s In but not of Europe. 12 Homer, Iliad, Volume II: Books 13 - 24, Cambridge 1925, 14.321 - 322. 13 Mark Woolmer, A short history of the Phoenicians, London/ New York 2017, p. 4. 14 See Mark Woolmer 2017, p. 170. 15 See ibid., p. 139. 16 See Pasquale Ferrara, “ Il Cratere Di Europa Di Assteas ” , in: Archeologia Classica 60 (2009), pp. 353 - 368. 17 See ibid., p. 362. 18 Aeschylus, Fragments, Carians or Europa, Cambridge 2009, vs. 5 - 9. 19 Nicole Loraux, The Experiences of Tiresias, Princeton 1995, p. 34. 20 Aeschylus 2009, vs. 15. 21 Ibid., vs. 22. 22 Dawid Kasprowicz and Peter Ortmann, “ Keine Bewegung ohne Stimme ” , https: / / www.trailer-ruhr.de/ keine-bewegung-ohne-s timme [accessed 21 January 2019]. 23 Carl Hermann Bitter, Johann Sebastian Bach, Berlin 1865, p. 181. 24 Theocritus, Moschus, Bion, Theocritus. Moschus. Bion, Cambridge 2015, p. 451, vs. 8 - 11. 25 Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel, “ Home Visit Europe “ , https: / / www.rimi ni-protokoll.de/ website/ en/ project/ hausbesu ch-europa [accessed 22 January 2019]. 26 Colin Crouch, “ Coping with Post-Democracy “ , https: / / www.fabians.org.uk/ wp-con tent/ uploads/ 2012/ 07/ Post-Democracy.pdf [accesses 22 January 2019]. 27 Rimini Protokoll, “ Hausbesuch Europa ” , https: / / vimeo.com/ 203094772 [accesses 22 January 2019]. 28 Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Treaties establishing the European Communities, Luxembourg 1987, p. 25. 29 Rimini Protokoll, “ Hausbesuch Europea ” , https: / / vimeo.com/ 203094772 [accessed 22 January 2019]. 30 CVCE: EU by UNI: LU, “ The Luxembourg Compromise “ , https: / / www.cvce.eu/ con tent/ publication/ 1997/ 10/ 13/ 501a4bc3f295 - 447f-a98a-3c1d50b46cd9/ publishable_ en.pdf [accessed 22 January 2019]. 31 Rimini Protokoll, “ Hausbesuch Europa ” , https: / / vimeo.com/ 203094772 [accessed 22 January 2019]. 32 Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Treaties establishing the European Communities, Luxembourg 1987, p. 41. 33 Rimini Protokoll, “ Hausbesuch Europa ” , https: / / vimeo.com/ 203094772 [accessed 22 January 2019]. 34 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1 - 8, Cambridge 1916, vs. 2.837 - 840. 35 Ibid., vs. 2.852 - 853. 36 Ibid., vs. 2.852. 37 NXTSTP, “ Philippe Quesne Paris, Big Bang “ , https: / / www.nxtstp.eu/ philippe-quesne [accessed 22 January 2019]. 38 For example, the inflatable dinghy in Big Bang can be interpreted as lifeboat or as a fun object used during the holidays. It is called Challenger just like the space shuttle that exploded. 159 Europa: Resonances of the Mythological Figure in Contemporary Theatre