Reading Notes: Metamorphoses I, Part A

The Story of Io

    Even before reading these stories, I knew a little about Juno (Hera, Saturnia) and her jealousy. She is the wife and sister of Jupiter (Zeus) - I know, but incest seems to be pretty common among the gods - and seems to be constantly pissed off by her husband/brother's (frequent) extramarital affairs. Personally, if I were her, I would've just played an Ariana Grande song and left him, but that's just me.

A brief summary of this story: 

    Io is the daughter of the river god Inachus and a priestess in Juno's temple. Jupiter sees her one day returning from visiting her father and tells her to come find some shade in the woods "protected by a god." Io, reacting like I think any girl would when a random stranger tries to entrap them, runs off. Jupiter covers the world in fog, and hidden by that fog, proceeds to rape Io. Juno looks down on Argos (where Io and her father live) and sees the fog, and thinks something is up. As she's coming down to check, Jupiter turns Io into a white cow to disguise her. Juno arrives and immediately knows what's up, and asks to keep the cow as a gift. Jupiter can't say no without giving himself away, so he concedes. Juno gives Io to one of her lackeys, Argus of the one hundred eyes that can allow him to keep watch all the time, for safekeeping. Io is miserable, lowing and wanting to go back to her family. She sees her own reflection in her father's waters and runs away, terrified by the sight of herself.

    Inachus and his daughters didn't recognize Io in her new form, but she followed them and allowed them to pet her. Eventually, she is able to communicate her identity to them by scratching letters in the dirt with her hoof. Inachus is heartbroken to know his daughter's fate, and Argus comes to take Io away from him. Jupiter is watching all of this, and decides to have his son, Mercury (Hermes) kill Argus. Mercury plays him to sleep, waiting for all one hundred of his eyes to close, and cuts off his head. Juno finds Argus' body and takes his eyes and places them on the feathers of her favorite bird, the peacock. That's how peacocks come to look the way they do, with their feathers that look like they have a hundred eyes on them. Juno sends a Fury to torment Io, but Jupiter intervenes. He tells her Io won't be a problem for her anymore, and as Juno calms herself, Io returns to her human form.

Juno, Jupiter, and Io (Source: Gerbrand van den Eeckhout)

My thoughts:

    I already mentioned that I don't really agree with Juno's actions. I think that one, she should've left Jupiter forever ago, and two, she shouldn't have always been taking out her anger towards her husband on these women who seem to have been, for the most part, forced to be with Jupiter. Io especially did not ask for this, she literally ran away from him. Maybe Juno was doing this to torment Jupiter, because he always seems to intervene at some point, but I get the sense she is just blindly directing her vengeance towards these women. If you ask me, it seems a little bit childish behavior for the queen of the gods. I am happy that, in this instance, Io got to return to her human form and (presumably) be with her family again.

Bibliography: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 1-4, translated by Tony Kline (2000)