According to Laurie Macguire in Helen of Troy From Homer to Hollywood, there was a sequence of abductions in mythology, starting with the Greek Io - the cow woman Hera ordered guarded by the 100-eyed Argus, and followed by the Asian Europa who was abducted by a white bull, then Asian Medea, and then Greek Helen, in a back and forth between East and West, and providing a type of quid pro quo motivation for the Trojan War.
After Europa was abducted and carried off by the Zeus-bull, her father sent her brothers off to find her. One of these brothers was Cadmus who, although he never found his sister Europa, did found the city of Thebes.
Europa arrived at Crete where she gave birth to 3 sons, Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon, known as judges in the Underworld.
