Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Zeus, The Unfaithful, and Argus, the All-Seeing


In my terms of reference, the word Argus triggers thoughts of a daily newspaper and something to do with the sea. While clicking my way through a search for something far removed, I tripped over an image of Argus, and true to form I clicked off at a tangent, and this is what I found.
Argus was a character in Greek mythology. His specialty talent was that he had a great multitude of eyes, 100 is the number most often quoted. He was known as “Argus All-Seeing”, for obvious reasons. Nothing could escape his vision.
Now the interesting part. Zeus, the main peanut in Greek Mythology, had an affair with lo. (Greek Gods are infamous for their affairs). The unfortunate part was that Zeus was husband to Goddess Hera. She surprised the couple one fine day while they were “consorting” and Zeus quickly changed Io into a cow. Hera was no fool and she thanked Zeus for the generous gift and took the cow home. All accounts are that Io was a very beautiful cow.
Hera then hired Argus to “keep an eye” on Io, and to let her know if Zeus happened to be around without her knowing. This was an easy task for Argus, as he could sleep with a some eyes open and some eyes closed. Zeus, however, wanted Io back. So what he did was to commission Hermes, the God of Thieves, to steal her back. (When in need, use a professional.)

Argus was bored with his task, and Hermes, disguised as a Shepard, charmed him to sleep with music from a flute of reeds, made by Pan. Argus was then killed by Hermes, either by beheading or stoning or both, there are different versions. Anyhow, Io was returned to Zeus by Hermes.
Hera, in honor of Argus, transplanted his eyes onto the feathers of a peacock, her favorite bird.
The peacock feather had an evil eye at the end, and that is why it is considered bad luck to have a peacock feather indoors.
Now….back to clicking ,must finish what I started doing.

3 comments:

Carol said...

Another great story and one I had never read about before. I have always loved Mythology. Nice ramblings as usual Grahams :)

Trish Ess said...

So how's that tag comin'? :D

Unknown said...

Well, that explains a lot of things from my childhood. We had a peacock when I was growing up and would always bring his feathers in the house for decoration.