This article is about the mythological figure.
For the moon of Jupiter, see Io.
Io was, in Greek mythology, a priestess of
Hera in Argos, a mortal who was seduced by
Zeus, who changed her into a heifer to escape
detection.
His wife Hera sent ever-watchful Argus Panoptes,
with 100 eyes, to watch her, but Hermes was
sent to distract the guardian and slay him.
Heifer Io was loosed to roam the world, stung
by a maddening gadfly sent by Hera, and wandered
to Egypt, thus placing her descendant Belus
in Egypt; his sons Cadmus and Danaus would
then "return" to mainland Greece.
Io's father is generally given as Inachus,
a river god credited with inaugurating the
worship of Hera in the countryside around
Argos, thus establishing her as an autochthonous
spirit of the Argolid and thus by her nature
the nymph of a spring, a Naiad.
However, due to the Inachid genealogy being
generally confused, other versions concerning
her parentage existed as well.
In some accounts, she is the daughter of the
Argive Iasus, who himself was given either
as the son of Argus Panoptes and Ismene, the
daughter of Asopus, or of Triopas and Sosis;
Io's mother in the latter case was Leucane.
Io's father was called Peiren in the Catalogue
of Women, and this figure might be a son of
the elder Argus also called Peiras, Peiranthus
or Peirasus in other sources.
Io may therefore be identical to Callithyia,
daughter of Peiranthus, as is suggested by
Hesychius of Alexandria.
Another of the myths is told most anecdotally
by Ovid, in Metamorphoses.
According to Ovid, one day, Zeus noticed the
maiden and lusted after her.
As Io tells her own story in Aeschylus' Prometheus
Bound, she rejected his whispered nighttime
advances until the oracles caused her own
father to drive her out into the fields of
Lerna.
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 heifer.
Hera was not fooled.
She demanded the heifer as a present, and
Zeus could not refuse her without arousing
suspicion.
Hera tethered Io to the olive-tree in the
temenos of her cult-site, the Heraion, and
placed her in the charge of many-eyed Argus
Panoptes to keep her separated from Zeus.
Zeus commanded Hermes to kill Argus; Ovid
added the detail that he lulled all hundred
eyes to sleep, ultimately with the story of
Pan and Syrinx.
Hera then forced Io to wander the earth without
rest, plagued by a gadfly to sting her into
madness.
Io eventually crossed the path between the
Propontis and the Black Sea, which thus acquired
the name Bosporus, where she met Prometheus.
Prometheus had been chained on Mt. Caucasus
by Zeus for teaching mankind how to make fire
and tricking Zeus into accepting the inferior
part of a sacrifice while the mortals kept
the better part; every day, a giant eagle
fed on Prometheus' liver.
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, Heracles.
Io escaped across the Ionian Sea to Egypt,
where she was restored to human form by Zeus.
There, she gave birth to Zeus's son Epaphus,
and a daughter as well, Keroessa.
She later married Egyptian king Telegonus.
Their grandson, Danaos, eventually returned
to Greece with his fifty daughters, as recalled
in Aeschylus' play The Suppliants.
The myth of Io must have been well known to
Homer, who often calls Hermes Hermes Argeiphontes,
"Hermes Argus-slayer."
Walter Burkert notes that the story of Io
was told in the ancient epic tradition at
least four times of which we have traces:
in the Danais, in the Phoronis— Phoroneus
founded the cult of Hera, according to Hyginus'
Fabulae 274 and 143—in a fragment of the
Hesiodic Aigimios, as well as in similarly
fragmentary Hesiodic Catalogue of Women.
A mourning commemoration of Io was observed
at the Heraion of Argos 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 Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, where Io encounters
Prometheus, she refers to herself as "the
horned virgin", both bovine and lunar.
In popular culture
In the 2010 film Clash of the Titans, Io was
portrayed by British actress Gemma Arterton.
The character was a major deviation from Greek
mythology: instead of being Zeus' lover, she
was portrayed as a guide to Perseus.
Her transformation into a cow was also not
mentioned.
Instead, she was "cursed" with agelessness
for refusing a god's romantic advances.
Despite confirming her return for Wrath of
the Titans in September 2010, Arterton did
not reprise her role for unknown reasons.
Instead, it is revealed that Io died shortly
before the beginning of the sequel, as Perseus
is seen placing stones on her grave.
Australian writer Ursula Dubosarsky's play
The Girl Who Was Turned Into A Cow, first
published in the NSW School Magazine, is based
on the myth of Io.
In Persona 3, Io is the starting persona of
Yukari Takeba.
Notes
External links
Theoi.com: Io: naiad nymph of Argolis and
Egypt Assembles the essential references in
Greek and Latin literature, in translation.
Io engravings by Goltzius from the De Verda
collection
Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
