Represented on the main side of this krater is the Abduction of Europa. Zeus, smitten by the beauty of Europa, daughter of the King of Phoenicia Agenor, metamorphosed into a snow-white bull in order to seduce her. The princess, enchanted by this creature, mounted its back and suddenly found herself flying over the sea (denoted here by the presence of fish). Hermes leads the way for the bull-Zeus, while Eros, who follows, hints at the passion that will draw the god and the mortal into their divine union at Gortyn on Crete, where the couple eventually landed. On the other side of the krater are three himationclad youths in conversation. The amorous affairs of the gods –especially Zeus– began to feature in vase-painting with the advent of the red-figure technique. Prior to this, only the conquest of Ganymede by Zeus in the guise of an eagle and the Abduction of Europa had been represented on some late examples of the black-figure style. The Abduction of Europa, after whom the continent of Europe is named, was a particularly popular subject in the first quarter of the 5th c. BC and continued to be depicted later. Calyx kraters are thus named because they resemble the calyx of a flower. The invention of the shape is attributed to Exekias, one of the most important vase-painters in the black-figure style, who was active in the mid-6th c. BC.