Titian is unequivocal about the fact that this is a scene of rape (abduction): Europa is sprawled helplessly on her back, her clothes in disarray.

Although the source of Titian's inspiration is thought to have been based on the scene from Book II in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a more direct influence might be a description of a painting of the rape of Europa found in Achilles Tatius's novel, Leucippe and Clitophon.

Achilles Tatius's novel was translated into Italian and printed in 1546 in Venice, only a few years before Titian was thought to have painted The Rape of Europa.

[12] Although the act of sexual violence is not depicted in the painting, it is implied through Europa's open-legged posture and her expression of fear as she is dragged off by Zeus.

[14] Yael Even has theorized that Titian could have created this painting not due to any particular attachment to the subject, but in order to assert his abilities as a painter.

[15] Peter Paul Rubens made a faithful copy of the painting in 1628–1629 that now hangs in the Museo del Prado.