Women, Weird and Wonderful: Io, Zeus' favourite Cow

In order to hide his mistress Io from his jealous wife Hera, Zeus changed her into a beautiful white cow. But clever Hera was on to him and asked for this particular cow as a small token of love. She assigned the monster Argos with the hundred eyes to keep an eye – or more – on her. Zeus didn’t know what to do, but cunning Hermes did. He told Argos some lovely bedtime stories until all of his hundred eyes fell asleep. And then, slaughtered him. Hera of course, was furious, but also really sad, and as a tribute to her pet monster, she put his hundred eyes on the peacock’s tail. Meanwhile, Io’s father, river god Inachos, mourned her disappearance, and didn’t recognise her, when she came back. She wrote her name in the sand with her hoof and Inachos was so shocked that his tears caused massive flooding. Hera haunted poor Io all over the earth until Zeus finally managed to cool her anger by making promises he would never keep. Io’s journey ends in Egypt, where she transformed into the much loved goddess Isis.

Io is handed to Juno, David Teniers the Elder, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Austria

Hermes slaying Argos panoptes, Lekythos, Museum of the Roman Forum of Thessaloniki, Greece

Did you know?

• Haunted by a gadfly, sent by Hera, Io kept fleeing. She swam across the sea that stil carries her name: Ionean Sea. She also crossed the small waterway between Europe and Asia, still known as the Bosporus (“cattle passage”).

• The giant Argos (Argus) often gets the epithet “panoptes”, which means “eyes everywhere”.