EPISODE 42

IN WHICH THE YOUNG IO IS HOUNDED BY HERA’S JEALOUSY

Previously: Hermes has just helped his father Zeus save a new child he has fathered, called Dionysus. Yet he is worried that Hera’s jealousy might strike again.

One morning, not very long after the birth of little Dionysus, Hermes was once again summoned by his father. He found him looking mournful, his voice sounding weary.

“My boy,” sighed Zeus, “I find myself once more in a very awkward situation. While I was paying a visit on earth to a young woman called Io, my wife Hera arrived there as well. Knowing her jealousy, I immediately transformed Io into a small cow in order to hide her away from her eyes. But Hera was not hoodwinked: she asked me to offer her the pretty cow that was by my side. I could find no reason to refuse, you understand… I was obliged to say yes. Since then, she has locked up Io and she has put Argus, her faithful guardian, the one with the hundred eyes, to keep watch over her. When he closes some of his eyes to sleep, others remain open, it is impossible to outsmart him!” Having thus taken Hermes in his confidence, Zeus fell silent.

Hermes understood what Zeus wanted from him. He placed his fingers on his father’s arm and said: “Let me deal with this, I will take care of everything.” Then he flew away immediately.

Hermes located the prisoner and her warder very quickly. The cow was tied by a rope to an olive tree. She was looking forlornly to right and left. A hideous individual sat very close to her. Hermes landed on a rock not far from Argus. He hid his god’s clothes and disguised himself as a shepherd, then he took out a reed from his pocket and began to play. The sound of the flute was beautiful and Argus, who was getting awfully bored watching over this cow, beckoned to him to come closer. Skipping his way over, the boy did not need to be asked twice. And he began to chatter on and on… For his plan was to lull this monster to sleep by telling him stories. And as far as stories were concerned, Hermes knew thousands of them! He talked and talked, he played and played so much, that little by little Argus fell asleep. One after the other his eyelids closed shut. When ninety-nine of them had closed, lulled by Hermes’ voice and music, Hermes approached the monster gingerly, holding a great stone in his hand. The hundredth eye also closed at last, Hermes pounced, and knocked the monster senseless with his stone. Then he lopped off its head, and set Io free.

When he returned to Olympus, Zeus embraced his son tightly in his arms. Then he said to him, laughing: “Look at you! You have become the god of thieves, my son!” White-armed Hera, when she learnt of the death of her beloved watchman, began to howl with rage everywhere in the palace. In remembrance of Argus, she took the monster’s eyes and pinned them on the peacock’s tail. And ever since that day, peacocks don mysterious eyes on the feathers of their tails.

Her anger was not placated, however, and so Hera sent a gadfly, a great stinging fly, to chase after poor Io. Io began to run like mad in every direction. She travelled for miles and miles along a rocky shore. In remembrance of her frenzied race, the sea along which she had run took her name and has since been called the Ionian Sea.

Fortunately, her flight came to an end on the banks of a long and majestic river called the Nile. Zeus came there to join her and restored to her once more her human form. Io could now resume her peaceful existence. Having saved first Dionysus and then Io, as it were, Hermes was really hoping to be able to get some rest. It was clear that he did not know his father well!

 

To be continued…