Because her brother wasPhoroneus, Io is also known asPhoronis (an adjective form of Phoroneus: "Phoronean").[1] She was sometimes compared to the Egyptian goddessIsis, whereas her Egyptian husband Telegonus wasOsiris.[2][3]
In most versions of the legend, Io was the daughter ofInachus,[4][5] though various other purported genealogies are also known. If her father was Inachus, then her mother would presumably have been Inachus' wife (and sister), theOceanid nymphMelia, daughter ofOceanus.[citation needed][a]She had the patronymic Inachis (Ἰναχίς) as daughter of Inachus.[6]
The 2nd century AD geographerPausanias mentions another, later Io, descendant ofPhoroneus, daughter ofIasus,[12] who himself was the son of Argus andIsmene, the daughter ofAsopus,[13] or ofTriopas andSosis; Io's mother in the latter case was Leucane.[14]
Io was a priestess of the goddessHera inArgos,[5][13] whose cult her father Inachus was supposed to have introduced to Argos.[5]Zeus noticed Io, a mortal woman, and lusted after her. In the version of the myth told inPrometheus Bound she initially rejected Zeus' advances, until her father threw her out of his house on the advice of oracles.[15] In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Zeus pursues a fleeing Io through the Lycrean country, throwing a mantle of darkness over the earth, and then raped her.[16] According to some stories, Zeus then turned Io into aheifer in order to hide her from his wife;[5] others maintain that Hera herself transformed Io.[15][17]
In the version of the story in which Zeus transformed Io, the deception failed, and Hera begged Zeus to give her the heifer as a present, which, having no reason to refuse, he did. Pitying the unfortunate girl,Gaia, the goddess of the earth, created theviolet (Ancient Greek:ἴον,romanized: ion), so the cow could eat, thus growing "from her from whom it has its name", based on incorrectfolk etymology. The various colours of the violet (red, purple, white) changed on account of Io's life, red for the blushing maiden, purple for the cow, white for the stars.[18][19][20] Hera then sentArgus Panoptes, a giant who had 100 eyes, to watch Io and prevent Zeus from visiting her, and so Zeus sentHermes to distract and eventually slay Argus. According to Ovid, he did so by first lulling him to sleep by playing the panpipes and telling stories.[21] Zeus freed Io, still in the form of a heifer. In some myths, Hera uses Argus' eyes to decorate her peacock's feathers to thank the giant for his help.
Terracottaantefix with the head of Io, 4th century BCE (Brindisi, Museo archeologico Francesco Ribezzo)
In order to exact her revenge, Hera sent agadfly to sting Io continuously, driving her to wander the world without rest. Io eventually crossed the path between thePropontis and theBlack Sea, which thus acquired the nameBosporus (meaningox passage), where she metPrometheus, who had been chained on Mt.Caucasus by Zeus. Prometheus comforted Io with the information that she would be restored to human form and become the ancestress of the greatest of all heroes,Heracles (Hercules). Io escaped across theIonian Sea toEgypt, where she was restored to human form by Zeus. There, she gave birth to Zeus's sonEpaphus, and a daughter as well,Keroessa. She later married Egyptian king Telegonus. Their grandson, Danaus, eventually returned to Greece with his fifty daughters (theDanaids), as recalled inAeschylus' playThe Suppliants.
The myth of Io must have been well known toHomer, who often calls HermesArgeiphontes, which is often translated as "Argus-slayer", though this interpretation is disputed byRobert Beekes.Walter Burkert[22] notes that the story of Io was told in the ancient epic tradition at least four times of which we have traces: in theDanais, in thePhoronis—Phoroneus founded the cult of Hera, according to Hyginus'Fabulae 274 and 143—in a fragment of the HesiodicAigimios, as well as in similarly fragmentary HesiodicCatalogue of Women. A mourning commemoration of Io was observed at theHeraion of Argos into classical times.
The ancients connected Io with the Moon,[23] and inAeschylus'Prometheus Bound, where Io encounters Prometheus, she refers to herself as "the horned virgin". From her relationship with Phoroneus, as sister (or descendant), Io is sometimes called Phoronis.[24]
The goddess Isis receives Io atCanopus. Antique frescoes inPompeii
Lygdus and his wife,Telethusa, were a poor couple living inCrete.[27] When Telethusa becomes pregnant, her husband tells her that they cannot afford to have a daughter, and that they have no other option than to kill the child if it is a daughter. Eight months later Io, later in the story mentioned asIsis, comes in a vision to Telethusa telling her that she should keep her daughter when it is born and must tell her husband that it is a boy namedIphis.
Later in the story, Isis (Io) changes Iphis' sex when she is supposed to marry her fiancée, Ianthe.
^Lewis & Short.A Latin Dictionary.Phŏrō-nis, ĭdis, f.adj., Phoronean, poet. for Argive [...]Subst.: Phorōnis, ĭdis, f., Io
^Lemprière, John (1809).A Classical Dictionary. D. & G. Bruce. p. 355.Afterwards she married Telegonus, king of Egypt, or Osiris, according to others, and she treated her subjects with such mildness and humanity, that after death, she received divine honours, and was worshipped under the name of Isis. [...] She is sometimes called Phoronis, from her brother Phoroneus.
^Beauzée, Nicolas (1751).L'Encyclopédie (in French).On a étendu encore plus loin la signification de ce terme, & l'on appelle noms patronymiques, ceux qui sont donnés d'après celui d'un frere ou d'une sœur, commePhoronis, c'est-à-direIsis Phoronei soror. Summary/translation: "The termpatronymic was expanded even further to include those named after a sibling, such asPhoronis to mean Isis, the sister of Phoroneus."
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