Hermes, Io (as cow) and Argus, black-figure amphora, 540–530 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 585)

In Greek mythology, Io (IPA [ˈaɪoʊ] or [ˈiːoʊ]), (World Book «EYE oh»)a priestess of Hera in Argos^[1] who was seduced by Zeus, who changed her into a heifer to escape detection. Her mistress Hera set ever-watchful Argus Panoptes to guard 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 thus "return" to mainland Greece. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 597 pixelsFull resolution (2490 × 1857 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 597 pixelsFull resolution (2490 × 1857 pixel, file size: 1. ... For other uses, see Hermes (disambiguation). ... Hera/Juno, offered the head of Argus by Hermes, places his eyes in the peacocks tail, in a decoration by Jacopo Amigoni (ca 1682 - 1752) In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes, brother to the nymph Io, was a giant with a hundred eyes. ... Amphoræ on display in Bodrum Castle, Turkey An amphora is a type of ceramic vase with two handles, used for the transportation and storage of perishable goods and more rarely as containers for the ashes of the dead or as prize awards. ... Bavarian State Collection of Antiques The Staatliche Antikensammlung (State Collection of Antiques) in Munich is a museum for the Bavarian states antique collections for Greek, Etruscan and Roman art. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories 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. ... The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet can be used to show pronounciation in English. ... For other uses, see Hera (disambiguation). ... Coordinates 37°37′ N 22°43′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Argolis Province Argos Population 29,505 Area 5. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Hera/Juno, offered the head of Argus by Hermes, places his eyes in the peacocks tail, in a decoration by Jacopo Amigoni (ca 1682 - 1752) In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes, brother to the nymph Io, was a giant with a hundred eyes. ... For other uses, see Hermes (disambiguation). ... Gadfly can refer to: Gadfly, a type of fly typically belonging to either the genus Tabanidae or Oestridae Gadfly (database), a relational database in the Python programming language Gadfly (social), a term for people who upset the status quo Gadfly Records, an independent record label SA-11 Gadfly (see Novator... Belus in Latin or Belos in accurate Greek transliteration is one of: Persons Ba‘al: a title (lord) in northwest Semitic languages, often applied to particular gods. ... Cadmus Sowing the Dragons teeth, by Maxfield Parrish, 1908 Caddmus, or Kadmos (Greek: Κάδμος), in Greek mythology, was the son of the king of Phoenicia (Modern day Lebanon) and brother of Europa. ... Danaus, or Danaos (sleeper) was a Greek mythological character, twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. ...

Io's father is generally given as Inachus, a river god credited with inaugurating the worship of Hera in the region of Argos, thus establishing her as an autochthonous spirit of the Argolid^[2] and thus by her nature a nymph of a spring, a naiad.^[3] Inachus is one of the Oceanids in Greek mythology. ... For other uses, see Hera (disambiguation). ... Coordinates 37°37′ N 22°43′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Argolis Province Argos Population 29,505 Area 5. ... Indigenous peoples are: Peoples living in an area prior to colonization by a state Peoples living in an area within a nation-state, prior to the formation of a nation-state, but who do not identify with the dominant nation. ... Argos (Greek: Άργος, Árgos) is a city in Greece in the Peloponnesus near Nafplio, which was its historic harbor, named for Nauplius. ... A Naiad by John William Waterhouse, 1893. ...

The myth 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. For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Disambiguation: This article is about the poem Metamorphoses written by the poet Ovid. ... This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... Prometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek tragedy. ... For the municipality, see Myloi (Argolida), Greece, the seat of the municipality of Lerna In classical Greece, Lerna was a region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos. ... Cattle the charitable organization Heifer International This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

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. 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 Sea, which thus acquired the name Bosporus (meaning ox passage), where she met Prometheus. Greek Temenos ([1], from the Greek verb to cut) (plural = temene) 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... Heraion redirects here. ... Hera/Juno, offered the head of Argus by Hermes, places his eyes in the peacocks tail, in a decoration by Jacopo Amigoni (ca 1682 - 1752) In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes, brother to the nymph Io, was a giant with a hundred eyes. ... For other uses, see Hermes (disambiguation). ... Estrus (also spelled œstrus) or heat in female mammals is the period of greatest female sexual responsiveness usually coinciding with ovulation. ... The Sea of Marmara (Turkish: Marmara denizi, Modern Greek: Μαρμαρα̃ Θάλασσα or Προποντίδα) (also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea) is an inland sea... For other uses, see Black Sea (disambiguation). ... I LOVE BORAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Two bridges cross the Bosporus. ... For other uses, see Prometheus (disambiguation). ...

Prometheus had been chained on Mt. Caucasus 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 eagle fed on Prometheus's 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 (the Danaids), as recalled in Aeschylus' play The Suppliants. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Caucasus Mountains. ... Genera Several, see below. ... The liver is an organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... The Ionian Sea. ... In Greek mythology, Epaphus, also called Apis, is the son of Zeus and Io. ... In Greek mythology, Keroessa was a nymph (in Greek νύμφη) or Princess of Byzantion, on the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia. ... In Greek mythology, Telegonus (born afar) was the youngest son of Circe and Odysseus. ... This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... The Suppliants (Greek Hiketides, also translated as The Suppliant Maidens) is a play by Aeschylus. ...

The myth of Io must have been well-known to Homer, who often calls Hermes Hermes Argeiphontes, "Hermes Argus-slayer." Walter Burkert^[4] 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 an Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragment supplementing the the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. A mourning commemoration of Io was observed at the Heraion of Argos into classical times. For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ... In Greek mythology, Phoroneus was a culture-hero, son of Inachus and Melia. ... In Greek mythology, Phoroneus was a culture-hero, son of Inachus and Melia. ... Gaius Julius Hyginus, (c. ... The Catalogue of Women (Greek: γυναικῶν κατάλογος, gynaikon katalogos) is an epic of ancient Greek literature. ... The Heraion of Argos was the temple in the main sanctuary in the Argolid dedicated to Hera, whose epithet Argive Hera (Here Argeie) is familiar to readers of Homer: Hera herself claims to be the protector of Argos (Iliad IV, 50–52), where the memory was preserved of an archaic...

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,^[5] and in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, where Io encounters Prometheus, she refers to herself as "the horned virgin", both bovine and lunar. This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... Prometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek tragedy. ...

Notes

The Catalogue of Women (Greek: γυναικῶν κατάλογος, gynaikon katalogos) is an epic of ancient Greek literature. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Bibliotheke was renowned as the chief work of Greek historian and scholar. ... Eustathius of Thessalonica (Greek: ) (? - 1198) was a native of Constantinople who became archbishop of Thessalonike. ... Dionysius Periegetes, author of a description of the habitable world in Greek hexameter verse, written in a terse and elegant style. ... Suda (Σουδα or alternatively Suidas) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopædia of the ancient Mediterranean world. ... People named Hesychius (Greek for calm one): Hesychius of Alexandria Hesychius of Jerusalem Hesychius of Antioch Hesychius of Miletus This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Io (mythology)

• Jupiter and Io, one of Antonio da Correggio's most famous paintings.

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Jupiter and Io (c. ... Antonio Allegri da Correggio. ...

External links

• Theoi.com: Io: naiad nymph of Argolis and Egypt Assembles the essential references in Greek and Latin literature, in translation.