In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Io ( or , in Ancient Greek Ἰώ ) was a priestess of
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
in
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
who was seduced by
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
, who changed her into a
heiferHeifer may refer to:*A young female cow before she has had her first calf.*Red Heifer, in Judaism is a heifer that is sacrificed and whose ashes are used for the ritual purification.*Heifer International, a charitable organization...
to escape detection. Her mistress Hera set ever-watchful
Argus PanoptesIn Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes or Argos, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and...
to guard her, but
HermesHermes is the Messenger of the gods in Greek mythology as well as a guide to the Underworld. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of...
was sent to distract the guardian and slay him. Heifer Io was loosed to roam the world, stung by a maddening
gadflyThe gadfly, a type of fly plaguing cattle, typically ones belonging to either the family Tabanidae or the family Oestridae , appears in Greek mythology as a tormenter to Io, the heifer maiden. Zeus lusts after Io and eventually turns her into a white heifer to hide her from his jealous wife, Hera....
sent by Hera, and wandered to Egypt, thus placing her descendant
BelusIn Greek mythology, Belus was the son of Poseidon and Libya. He was a king of Egypt and father of Aegyptus and Danaus and brother to Agenor.-Genealogy:...
in Egypt; his sons
CadmusCadmus or Kadmos , in Phoenician and Greek mythologies, was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of...
and
DanausDanaus, or Danaos , was a Greek mythological character, twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. The myth of Danaus is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus...
would thus "return" to mainland Greece.
Io's father is generally given as
InachusIn Greek mythology, Inachus personified the Inachus River, the modern Panitsa that drains the western margin of the Argive plain. He was king of Argos .
, a river god credited with inaugurating the worship of
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
in the region of
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
, thus establishing her as an autochthonous spirit of the Argolid and as by her nature a nymph of a spring, a
naiadIn Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks....
.
The myth is told most anecdotally by
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
, in
Metamorphoses.
In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Io ( or , in Ancient Greek Ἰώ ) was a priestess of
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
in
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
who was seduced by
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
, who changed her into a
heiferHeifer may refer to:*A young female cow before she has had her first calf.*Red Heifer, in Judaism is a heifer that is sacrificed and whose ashes are used for the ritual purification.*Heifer International, a charitable organization...
to escape detection. Her mistress Hera set ever-watchful
Argus PanoptesIn Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes or Argos, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and...
to guard her, but
HermesHermes is the Messenger of the gods in Greek mythology as well as a guide to the Underworld. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of...
was sent to distract the guardian and slay him. Heifer Io was loosed to roam the world, stung by a maddening
gadflyThe gadfly, a type of fly plaguing cattle, typically ones belonging to either the family Tabanidae or the family Oestridae , appears in Greek mythology as a tormenter to Io, the heifer maiden. Zeus lusts after Io and eventually turns her into a white heifer to hide her from his jealous wife, Hera....
sent by Hera, and wandered to Egypt, thus placing her descendant
BelusIn Greek mythology, Belus was the son of Poseidon and Libya. He was a king of Egypt and father of Aegyptus and Danaus and brother to Agenor.-Genealogy:...
in Egypt; his sons
CadmusCadmus or Kadmos , in Phoenician and Greek mythologies, was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of...
and
DanausDanaus, or Danaos , was a Greek mythological character, twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. The myth of Danaus is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus...
would thus "return" to mainland Greece.
Io's father is generally given as
InachusIn Greek mythology, Inachus personified the Inachus River, the modern Panitsa that drains the western margin of the Argive plain. He was king of Argos .
, a river god credited with inaugurating the worship of
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
in the region of
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
, thus establishing her as an autochthonous spirit of the Argolid and as by her nature a nymph of a spring, a
naiadIn Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks....
.
The myth is told most anecdotally by
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
, in
Metamorphoses. According to Ovid, one day, Zeus noticed the maiden and lusted after her. As Io tells her own story in
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
'
Prometheus BoundPrometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek tragedy. In Antiquity, this drama was attributed to Aeschylus, but is now considered by some scholars to be the work of another hand, perhaps one as late as ca. 415 BC. Despite these doubts of authorship, the play's designation as Aeschylean has remained...
, she rejected his whispered nighttime advances until the oracles caused her own father to drive her out into the fields of
LernaIn classical Greece, Lerna was a region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos. Its site near the village Mili at the Argolic Gulf is most famous as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra, the chthonic many-headed water snake, a creature of great antiquity...
. There, Zeus covered her with clouds to hide her from the eyes of his jealous wife, Hera, who nonetheless came to investigate. In a vain attempt to hide his crimes, Zeus turned himself into a white cloud and transformed Io into a beautiful white
heiferHeifer may refer to:*A young female cow before she has had her first calf.*Red Heifer, in Judaism is a heifer that is sacrificed and whose ashes are used for the ritual purification.*Heifer International, a charitable organization...
. Hera was not fooled. She demanded the heifer as a present.
Hera tethered Io to the olive-tree in the
temenosTemenos is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct: The Pythian race-course is called a temenos, the sacred valley of the Nile is the ...
of her cult-site, the
HeraionThe Heraion of Samos was a great sanctuary in the southern region of Samos, 6 km southwest of the ancient city, in a low, marshy river basin near the sea. The Late Archaic Heraion of Samos was the first of the gigantic free-standing Ionic temples, but its predecessors at this site reached back...
, and placed her in the charge of many-eyed
Argus PanoptesIn Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes or Argos, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and...
to keep her separated from Zeus. Zeus commanded
HermesHermes is the Messenger of the gods in Greek mythology as well as a guide to the Underworld. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of...
to kill Argus; Ovid added the detail that he lulled all hundred eyes to sleep. Hera then forced Io to wander the earth without rest, plagued by a gadfly (Οίστρος or
oestrus: see etymology of "estrus" ) to sting her into madness. Io eventually crossed the path between the Propontis and the
Black Seaur a loser!The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to...
, which thus acquired the name
BosporusThe Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between the European part of Turkey and its Asian part . It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...
(meaning
ox passage), where she met
PrometheusIn Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of human-kind known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
.
Prometheus had been chained on Mt.
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
by Zeus for teaching Man how to make fire and tricking him into accepting the worse part of a sacrifice while the mortals kept the better part (meat); every day, a giant
eagleEagles are large birds of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa...
fed on Prometheus'
liverThe liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals; it has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
. Despite his agony, he comforted Io with the information that she would be restored to human form and become the ancestress of the greatest of all heroes,
HeraclesIn Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles , Alcides or Alcaeus , was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
. Io escaped across the
Ionian SeaThe Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, and by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante,...
to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, where she was restored to human form by Zeus. There, she gave birth to Zeus's son
EpaphusIn Greek mythology, Epaphus , also called Apis, was the son of Zeus and Io and a king of Egypt.The name/word Epaphus means "Touch". This refers to the manner in which he was conceived, by the touch of Zeus' hand. He was born in Euboea or, according to others, in Egypt, on the river Nile, after...
, and a daughter as well,
KeroessaIn Greek mythology, Keroessa was a nymph or Princess of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia. She was the daughter of Io and Zeus; and mother of Byzas the Magerian, founder of Byzantium, with her uncle, Poseidon.-Story:Zeus fell in love with Io, the daughter of Inachus,...
. She later married Egyptian king
TelegonusIn Greek mythology, Telegonus was the youngest son of Circe and Odysseus.When Telegonus grew up, Circe sent him to find Odysseus, who by this time had finally returned to Ithaca from the Trojan War. On his arrival Telegonus began plundering the island, thinking it was Corcyra...
. Their grandson, Danaos, eventually returned to Greece with his fifty daughters (the Danaids), as recalled in
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
' play
The SuppliantsThe Suppliants is a play by Aeschylus. It was probably first performed sometime after 470 BC as the first play in a trilogy which probably included the lost plays The Egyptians and The Daughters of Danaus...
.
The myth of Io must have been well-known to
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
, who often calls Hermes
Hermes Argeiphontes, "Hermes Argus-slayer."
Walter BurkertWalter Burkert , a scholar of Greek mythology and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and also has taught in the United Kingdom and the United States...
notes that the story of Io was told in the ancient epic tradition at least four times of which we have traces: in the
DanaisDanais refers to a lost ancient Greek epic written by one of the cyclic poets. The Danaid tetralogy of Aeschylus undoubtedly draws its material from this particular literary work. Danais is represented in the table of epics in the received canon on the very fragmentary "Borgia table" as "Danaides"....
, in the
PhoronisIn Greek mythology, Phoroneus was a culture-hero of the Argolid, fire-bringer, primordial king of Argos and son of the river god Inachus and either Melia, the primordial ash-tree nymph or Argia, the embodiment of the Argolid itself: "Inachus, son of Oceanus, begat Phoroneus by his sister Argia,"...
—
PhoroneusIn Greek mythology, Phoroneus was a culture-hero of the Argolid, fire-bringer, primordial king of Argos and son of the river god Inachus and either Melia, the primordial ash-tree nymph or Argia, the embodiment of the Argolid itself: "Inachus, son of Oceanus, begat Phoroneus by his sister Argia,"...
founded the cult of Hera, according to Hyginus'
Fabulae 274 and 143— in a fragment of the Hesiodic
Aigimios as well as in an Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragment supplementing the Hesiodic
Catalogue of WomenThe Catalogue of Women is an Ancient Greek poem. Ancient writers sometimes attributed it to Hesiod, although the poem contains a few references to events and things after Hesiod's time that could suggest that they were later added or that the epic is of a completely different author...
. A mourning commemoration of Io was observed at the
Heraion of ArgosThe Heraion of Argos was the temple in the main sanctuary in the Argolid dedicated to Hera, whose epithet "Argive Hera" is familiar to readers of Homer. Hera herself claims to be the protector of Argos , where the memory was preserved of an archaic, aniconic pillar representation of the Great...
into classical times.
The mythic events concerning Io were transplanted, no doubt by colonists from Argos, to various far-flung sites in the Hellenic world.
The ancients connected Io with the Moon, and in
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
'
Prometheus BoundPrometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek tragedy. In Antiquity, this drama was attributed to Aeschylus, but is now considered by some scholars to be the work of another hand, perhaps one as late as ca. 415 BC. Despite these doubts of authorship, the play's designation as Aeschylean has remained...
, where Io encounters Prometheus, she refers to herself as "the horned virgin", both bovine and lunar.
External links