Io- Greek FigureMortal"Priestess of Hera"

The White Heifer

Io served as priestess of Hera at the Heraion of Argos, daughter of the river god Inachus. Zeus desired her and visited her in dreams, urging her to the meadows of Lerna. When Inachus consulted the oracles, they commanded him to drive Io from his home or face destruction by thunderbolt. To conceal the affair from Hera, Zeus wrapped the land in a thick cloud of darkness. When Hera grew suspicious and dispersed the cloud, Zeus hastily transformed Io into a beautiful white heifer. Hera, not deceived, demanded the cow as a gift and set the hundred-eyed giant Argus Panoptes to guard her.

The Slaying of Argus

Argus was the ideal guardian — his hundred eyes never all closed at once. Zeus sent Hermes to free Io. Hermes disguised himself as a shepherd and sat beside Argus, playing his reed pipe and telling stories until all of the giant's eyes finally closed. Then Hermes drew his curved sword and struck off Argus's head. Hera took the eyes and set them in the tail of her sacred peacock, but rather than releasing Io, she sent a maddening gadfly to pursue the heifer endlessly.

The Wanderings and Restoration

Driven by the gadfly's sting, Io fled across the known world. She crossed the strait that bears her name — the Bosporus, meaning "cow's crossing" — and wandered through Asia Minor, Scythia, and the Caucasus. In the mountains she encountered the chained Prometheus, who prophesied that her suffering would end in Egypt and that a descendant in the thirteenth generation would free him from his torment. Io's wanderings brought her at last to the banks of the Nile, where Zeus touched her with his hand — the divine ēpaphē — and restored her to human form. She conceived a son, Epaphus, whose name means "touch." Herodotus reports that the Greeks identified Io with the Egyptian Isis — the cow-horned goddess of the Nile.