Io (mythology)  

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"If man loves boys, God loves boys also. Homer and Hesiod forgot to tell us about Ganymede and Hyacinth and Hylas. Let these lads be added to the list of Danaë and Semele and Io. Homer told us that, because Ganymede was beautiful, Zeus made him the serving-boy of the immortals." --A Problem in Greek Ethics (1883) by John Addington Symonds

Image:Jupiter and Io by Correggio.jpg
Jupiter and Io (c. 1530) by Correggio, one of the few paintings to leave the Orleans Collection before the French Revolution. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

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In Greek mythology, Io (pronounced "EE oh" though "EYE oh," is also acceptable) was the daughter of Inachus, a river god. One day Zeus noticed her and she quickly became one of his many lovers. Zeus covered her with clouds to hide her from the eyes of his jealous wife, Hera, who nonetheless came to investigate. In a vain attempt to hide his crimes, Zeus turned himself into a white cloud and transformed Io into a beautiful white heifer. Hera was not fooled. She demanded the heifer as a present.

Once Io was given to Hera, she placed Io in the charge of Argus (the many-eyed monster) to keep her separated from Zeus. Zeus then commanded Hermes to kill Argus, which he did by lulling all one-hundred eyes to sleep. Hera sent a gadfly to sting Io as she wandered the earth, eventually running into Prometheus, after crossing the path between Propontis and Black Sea, which thus took the name Bosporus (meaning ox passage). Prometheus, at that time chained on Mt. Caucasus, told her that she would eventually be restored to human form and become the ancestress of a great hero (Heracles). Io escaped across the Ionian Sea to Egypt, where she was transformed back into human form by Zeus. In Egypt Io gave birth to Epaphus.

The term Io fly is derived from the gadfly Hera sent to torment Io into fleeing to Egypt after Argus was slain.

The myth is told most anecdotally by Ovid, in Metamorphoses.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Io (mythology)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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