Goddess Io: myths and legends of ancient Greece, images. Argus and Io - Myths of Ancient Greece Io Greek mythology
Io and Zeus
The beautiful Io was a priestess of the Argive Hera, she was seduced by Zeus. The jealous goddess learned that her husband Zeus had fallen in love with Io. During a quarrel between the spouses, Io was turned into a white cow. Some claim that Hera turned her, others say that Zeus himself did this, falsely swearing that he did not love the beautiful girl. Since then, those who make vows of love do not incur the wrath of the gods if they are broken.
Hera begged Zeus to give him this cow and instructed the thousand-eyed Argos Panoptus to secretly take her to the Nemean olive grove. Zeus, in turn, turned to his son - the god of theft and deceit Hermes - so that he would save Io. Hermes put Argos to sleep by playing the flute, and then cut off his head.
The freed Io, however, still remained in the form of a silent cow. Upon learning that Argus did not cope with the assignment, Hera created a terrible gadfly so that he would pursue and sting Io everywhere.
Wanderings of Io
In vain, Io fled from him, first hitting Dodona and reaching the sea, which since then has been called the Ionian, then north, through the Cimmerian Bosporus, which got its name from this ( Βόσπορος - cow ford), to Asia. After the crossing, she stopped in an area called Korova. Returned the mind in Kanobe (Egypt). According to another story, she gave birth to Epaphus in a cave on Euboea facing the Aegean Sea.
According to another version, she married the Egyptian king Telegon. Also in late antiquity, a variant of the myth was widely circulated, according to which in Egypt she became the goddess Isis. Finally, according to another interpretation, it was turned into the constellation Taurus.
Symbolism
Io, according to one of the interpretations, is the horned goddess of the moon, wandering through the sky covered with countless stars (the eyes of Argus). Name presumably from Egyptian iw,'t"cow" .
Notes
Links
- R. Graves. Myths of Ancient Greece: The Older Generation of Heroes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what "Io (mythology)" is in other dictionaries:
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And about
Hera often suffers insults from her husband Zeus. So it was when Zeus fell in love with the beautiful Io and, in order to hide her from his wife Hera, turned Io into a cow. But this thunderer did not save Io. Hera saw the snow-white cow Io and demanded from Zeus that he give it to her. Zeus could not refuse this to Hera. Hera, having taken possession of Io, gave her under guard to the stout-eyed Argus. Unfortunate Io suffered, she could not tell anyone about her sufferings; turned into a cow, she was speechless. Sleepless Argus guarded Io, she could not hide from him. Zeus saw her suffering. Calling his son Hermes, he ordered him to kidnap Io.
Hermes quickly rushed to the top of that mountain, where Io was guarded by a hundred-eyed guard. He put Argus to sleep with his speeches. As soon as his hundred eyes closed, Hermes drew his curved sword and cut off Argus's head with one blow. Io was released. But even with this, Zeus did not save Io from the wrath of Hera. She sent a monstrous gadfly. With his sting, the gadfly drove the unfortunate sufferer Io, distraught from torment, from country to country. She did not find peace anywhere. In a frantic run, she rushed farther and farther, and the gadfly flew after her, constantly piercing her body with his sting; the sting of the gadfly burned Io like red-hot iron. Where only Io did not run, in what countries she did not visit! Finally, after long wanderings, she reached in the country of the Scythians, in the far north, the rock to which the titan Prometheus was chained. He predicted the unfortunate that only in Egypt would she get rid of her torment. Io rushed on, driven by the gadfly. She endured many torments, saw many dangers, before she reached Egypt. There, on the banks of the fertile Nile, Zeus returned her former image to her, and her son Epaphus was born. He was the first king of Egypt and the ancestor of the great generation of heroes to which he belonged. greatest hero Greece, Hercules.
- the daughter of Inach, the god of the river and the king of Argos, and the nymph Melia, the sister of Argos and Phoroneus. Priestess of the goddess Hera. One day Zeus saw her in a temple and seduced her. Once Hera caught them together, but Zeus swore that there was nothing between them and turned the beautiful Io into a white cow. Hera begged him for a cow and put the all-seeing stout-eyed Argos to guard her. Argos tied a cow to an olive tree in a grove near the city of Mycenae. Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, but it was difficult to do so, and Hermes killed Argos. Meanwhile, Hera sent a gadfly to the cow, who followed her everywhere. Fleeing from him, Io fled to Egypt, where Zeus restored her human form, and she gave birth to Epaphus (Apis). Then Hera hid Epaphus, and Io wandered for a long time in Syria until she found him, and they returned to Egypt. Upon her return, Io married Telegonus, the king of Egypt. Io erected in her capital a statue of Demeter, which the Egyptians called Isis, and later began to call Isis and Io herself.
// Antonio CORREGGIO: Jupiter and Io // N.A. Kun: io
Myths of Ancient Greece, dictionary-reference book. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, word meanings and what is IO in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- AND ABOUT in the Directory of Miracles, Unusual Phenomena, UFOs, and More:
in ancient Greek mythology daughter of the Argos king Inach, beloved of Zeus, who turned her into a snow-white heifer. At the same time, IO... - AND ABOUT in the Concise Dictionary of Mythology and Antiquities:
(Io. "??). Daughter of King Argos Inach, priestess of Hera, beloved by Zeus. Jealous Hera turned her into a cow and assigned Argus to guard ... - AND ABOUT
In Greek mythology, the daughter of the king of Argos Inach. Beloved of Zeus. Fearing the wrath of jealous Hera, Zeus turned Io into a snow-white heifer, but... - AND ABOUT in the Dictionary-Reference Who's Who in the Ancient World:
Priestess of Hera in Argos, beloved of Zeus. To protect Hera from jealousy, Zeus turned her into a cow. However, Gera failed ... - AND ABOUT in the Lexicon of Sex:
in Greek mythology, the priestess of the goddess Hera, who captivated Zeus with her beauty and turned the Hera out of jealousy into a cow. Avoiding bites... - AND ABOUT in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- AND ABOUT
(??) - the daughter of the ancient Argive king and at the same time the river god Inah (see). She was a priestess of the Argive Hera, ... - AND ABOUT in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
non-cl., with a capital letter 1. f., odush. In ancient Roman mythology: the beloved of Jupiter, turned into a cow by a jealous Juno, guarded by a many-eyed ... - AND ABOUT
IO FEI, see Yue Fei... - AND ABOUT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
IO, a satellite of Jupiter, was discovered by G. Galileo (1610). Distance from Jupiter 422 t. km, sidereal period of revolution 1 day 18 h ... - AND ABOUT in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
IO, in Greek. mythology, the priestess of the goddess Hera, who captivated Zeus with her beauty and turned the Hera out of jealousy into a cow. Escaping from… - AND ABOUT
(??) ? daughter of the ancient Argive king and at the same time the river god Inach (see). She was a priestess of the Argive Hera, ... - AND ABOUT in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language:
priestess... - AND ABOUT in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
in Greek mythology, the priestess of the goddess Hera, who captivated Zeus with her beauty and turned the Hera out of jealousy into a cow. Avoiding bites... - IO SYNDROME in explanatory dictionary psychiatric terms:
Described by V. Yonchev (1979) as a kind of chronic tasikinesia, that is, a state of increased motor activity, It is observed with organic brain lesions ... - EPAF in the Dictionary-Reference Myths of Ancient Greece:
The son of Zeus and his beloved Io. In the guise of a cow, escaping from a horsefly sent by a jealous Hero of Zeus, Io ran to ... - RESURRECTION in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
Jesus Christ (Greek ?????????, Lat. Resurrectio), in Christian religious and mythological ideas, the return of Jesus Christ to life after his death on the cross ... - FERTILIZATION ARTIFICIAL in the Medical Dictionary.
- FERTILIZATION ARTIFICIAL in the big medical dictionary.
- EPAF in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
("??????) - the son of Zeus and Io, born on the banks of the Nile. At the request of Hera, who wanted to destroy the hated rival Io and ... - EPAF in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
("??????)? the son of Zeus and Io, born on the banks of the Nile. At the request of Hera, who wanted to destroy the hated rival Io ... - SOLAR SYSTEM: SUN in Collier's Dictionary:
To the article SOLAR SYSTEM At the center of the solar system is the Sun - a typical single star with a radius of about 700,000 km and ... - IONTOPHORESIS
io`ntofore "s, io`ntofore" s, io`ntofore "for, io`ntofore" call, io`ntofore "zu, io`ntofore" deputy, io`ntofore "s, io`ntofore" zy, io` ntofore "zom, io`ntofore" zami, io`ntofore "ze, ... - IONOTHERAPY in the Full accentuated paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
io`noterapi "I, io`noterapi" and, io`noterapi"and, io`noterapi"th, io`noterapi"and, io`noterapi"yam, io`noterapi"yu, io`noterapi"and, io` noterapi "her, io`noterapi" her, io`noterapi'ami, io`noterapi'and, ...
Caused by the love affairs of her unfaithful husband, Zeus.
Once Hera, not seeing Zeus in his usual place on Olympus, began to look for him and soon noticed an unusually dark cloud on the ground, near the Inach River. She descended to earth, wishing to disperse this cloud and see what was happening there. Zeus was indeed there, pursuing the beautiful Io, the daughter of the river Inach. He surrounded himself with a dark cloud to hide from the eyes of the jealous Hera.
Noticing that the cloud was dissipating, and suspecting that the goddess had opened it, he turned Io into a white cow. When asked by Hera, he told her that he was admiring this cow, which the earth had just produced. The goddess wished to have her, and Zeus, having no reason to refuse his wife such an apparently insignificant gift, had to give her Io. Hera instructed the hundred-eyed giant Argus to guard the cow; he always closed only two eyes, and the rest watched poor Io everywhere. Ancient art could not in any way personify this myth, which is not amenable to plastic representation, and on the cameos Argus is presented only under the guise of an old man tending a cow.
Zeus wanted to save the unfortunate Io from the supervision of a giant. He called on the nimble god Hermes ( Mercury) and ordered him to kill Argus. Here is how Ovid tells about this: Hermes, following the order of his master, descended to earth, taking with him his rod (caduceus), which has the property of lulling. He began to graze goats, playing the flute, not far from Argus, to whom these sounds gave great pleasure, and therefore he invited Hermes to take a place near him, saying that he could not find a better pasture and a more shady place. Hermes accepted this offer and continued to play. At the same time, he imperceptibly set in motion his staff, and soon sleep closed all the eyes of the vigilant guardian. Then Hermes cut off his head with a sword.
Hera, grieved at the loss of her faithful servant, collected all his eyes and placed them on the wings and tail of the bird, since then dedicated to her, where they shine like stars (peacock).
Several ancient cameos depict this myth, but the most interesting is that of Hermes cutting off the head of Argus, whose body is dotted with his many eyes; a cow runs away, stung by a horsefly, and a peacock sits on a tree.
The inexorable goddess did not stop her persecution even here; she ordered one of Eriny under the guise of a horsefly, constantly sting Io, who, trying in vain to get rid of the insect, reached the banks of the Nile, where, exhausted from fatigue, she fell. Zeus began to ask to stop his persecution. Hera agreed, but on the condition that Io never return to Greece. She remained in Egypt, where they began to give her divine honors under the name of the goddess Isis. With this, the Greeks wanted to explain why the emblem of the Egyptian goddess Isis is a cow.
Mercury and Argus. Painting by Velasquez, c. 1659
The myth of the transformation of the nymph Io (and mainly the episode about Hermes and Argus) served as a theme for many works of modern times. Titian chose for his painting the moment when Hera sees Io turned into a cow. Rubens repeated several times his famous painting (now in the Dresden Gallery) "Mercury kills Argus". Velasquez He conveyed this story in his own way: Argus is depicted in him in the guise of a young Spanish shepherd who fell asleep to the sound of a flute, and Mercury carefully creeps up to him to cut off his head; Io, under the guise of a cow, looks at them indifferently.
Io lived in the small town of Argos, in the house of her father, the river king Inach. Once, on a hot day, young Io went to the river. As soon as she undressed and dived into the warm water, the great thunderer himself appeared on the shore. He began to speak to the beautiful nymph about his love, caressed her and promised to make her a great goddess. Meanwhile, Hera looked from Olympus to Argos and saw Zeus next to a beautiful nymph. She quickly flew to the ground and headed for the shore. But Zeus felt the approach of Hera and, in order to hide his beloved from her, turned Io into a snow-white heifer.
But this did not save the unfortunate Io. Hera guessed about the cunning of Zeus and decided to outwit him herself.
- I noticed that we had a wonderful snow-white heifer. I really like her. O my generous lord, I ask you to give it to me, she persuaded her husband.
Zeus really did not want to give Hera a snow-white heifer, but he could not refuse her either.
As soon as Hera took possession of the unfortunate Io, she sent her away from Olympus and assigned the hundred-eyed Argus to her guard. Io could not make a single superfluous movement, which Argus would not have noticed, this monster that does not know sleep. His eyes fell asleep by turns. While two eyes slept, the remaining 98 were awake and watched Io. During the day, he let her graze, and as soon as night fell, he locked her in a barn, and even tied her with a rope. Unfortunate Io lay in a dark barn on the cold ground and wept. There was no one to even complain to her. One afternoon she was grazing near her house and saw her sisters. But her sisters, the naiads, did not recognize Io, nor did her father himself, Inachus, recognize her. She followed them all day, allowed herself to be stroked, caressed them. When the amazed Inah handed her juicy grass, Io began to lick his hands and kiss his palms, tears flowed from her beautiful eyes. Only then did Inakh understand who was standing in front of him. “Oh, I'm unhappy,” he cried bitterly and rushed to hug the neck of his daughter, the cow, kissed her, stroked her small horns. - I was proud of you, I was waiting for grandchildren, now you will take your husband from the herd, your son will be from the herd. Even death will not save me from these torments now.
And so they stood, hugging each other. But then Argus appeared and drove Io to distant pastures. Zeus could no longer see the suffering of the unfortunate Io, he called the fleet-footed Hermes and sent him to earth to save Io.
The impetuous Hermes slipped to the ground, took off his flying sandals, picked up a cane and, pretending to be a shepherd, drove the goats to the peak where the hundred-eyed Argus was sitting. Argus was bored alone, and he rejoiced at the appearance of the shepherd.
“Come here,” he shouted, waving his arms, “sit down next to me.” You won't find better herbs anywhere than here. Yes, there are plenty of shadows.
Hermes sat down next to the hundred-eyed watchman, they talked, and so the day passed unnoticed. And in the evening Hermes played the flute, and played so well and for a long time that he completely lulled Argus. All his hundred eyes were closed, and Hermes drew a sharp sword and cut off his head.
Now Io was free, but the cruel Hera still did not leave her alone. She sent a huge gadfly to Io, who pursued her everywhere. He dug his terrible sting into the body of a snow-white heifer and caused her unbearable suffering. Mad with pain and torment, the unfortunate Io wanted to run away from the gadfly. She raced through forests and swamps, climbed into the most remote places, but found no rest anywhere. The ruthless gadfly did not lag behind and drove her from country to country.
Finally, she ran to the country of the Scythians and saw the titan Prometheus chained to a rock. And here she is.
- I don’t know how much more I will endure torment, and I ask the wise Prometheus to tell me about it.
Thus ended the unfortunate Io with her sad story.
Everyone was so shocked by the bitter fate and suffering of the beautiful Io that no one dared to be the first to break the deep silence. Finally, Prometheus spoke:
– Oh, trust me, Io! Better not to know than to know! You will still have a lot of torment on your way, and you will still have to go through many countries. Your path full of suffering lies through the country of the Scythians, through the high snowy Caucasus, through the country of the Amazons to the Bosporus Strait and to the sea, which will later be called your name - Ionian, as soon as you cross it. You will find yourself in a country where terrible gorgons live, vile snakes writhe on their heads instead of hair. Beware of them! Beware also of dangerous vultures, which you will also meet on your hard way. And then you will finally reach the Biblinsky Mountains, from where the fertile streams of the Nile fall. It is there, in the country where the full-flowing Nile flows, that you will find the long-awaited and hard-won peace. There, Zeus will return you to your real beautiful appearance, you will again become the beautiful goddess Io and give birth to a mighty son. He will rule over all of Egypt and give rise to a glorious line of heroes. From this family will come the hero who will come here and free me from the shackles. His name will be Hercules.
Unfortunate Io groaned loudly and plaintively and exclaimed wistfully:
- Oh, woe, woe! How can I endure all that cruel fate has prepared for me!
At this time, the gadfly overtook the suffering Io and plunged his sharp sting into her wounded body. She screamed loudly in pain and, madly rolling her eyes, rushed on.
And Prometheus shouted loudly, turning to the sky:
Reign, cruel Zeus. But the day will come when your power will be taken away from you, and you, too, will be thrown into eternal darkness. None of the gods can help you, and none knows how to prevent your terrible fate. One I know! But I won't help you anymore.
Suddenly, in the air, like a shooting star, swift-footed Hermes flashed and stood in front of the titan. Zeus sent his messenger to find out from Prometheus this great secret, who will take away his power over the world.
“You are a sinner before Zeus, Prometheus,” Hermes said to the recalcitrant titan, “and now you can remove this sin from yourself, answer, who will raise his hand to Zeus, which of his sons will dare to do this?” If you do not reveal your secret, you will be even worse. With a blow of his lightning, Zeus will bring down the rock on which you hang into a bottomless abyss, and there, in deep darkness, you will suffer without light and heat. Then again he will raise the rock up, but not in order to alleviate your suffering. Every day a huge bloodthirsty eagle will fly here and peck at your liver. It will grow again and again, because you are immortal, and he will torment it again and again with his sharp claws. And you will hang on this rock until someone agrees to descend instead of you into the gloomy kingdom of Hades. Think, Prometheus, and submit, because you know that Zeus will carry out his threat.
But the proud Prometheus did not submit and did not reveal his secret. And then there was a terrible roar, the earth trembled, bright lightning flashed, a great earthquake began. The rock split and fell into the abyss. Prometheus also disappeared with her.
