Io ( mythology ) - wikipedia Io ( mythology ) Hermes, Io ( as cow ) and Argus, black - figure amphora, 540 -- 530 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen ( Inv. 585 ) Io ( / ˈaɪ. oʊ / ; Ancient Greek : Ἰώ ( iːɔ̌ː ) ) was, in Greek mythology, one of the mortal lovers of Zeus. She was an ancestor of many kings and heroes such as Perseus, Cadmus, Heracles, Minos, Lynceus, Cepheus, and Danaus. The astronomer Simon Marius named a moon of Jupiter after Io in 1614. Contents 1 Legend 2 In popular culture 3 Gallery 4 Notes 5 External links Legend Pieter Lastman Juno Discovering Jupiter with Io In most versions of the legend, Io was the daughter of Inachus, though various other purported genealogies are also known. According to some sources her mother was the nymph Melia, daughter of Oceanus. The 2nd century AD geographer Pausanias also suggests that she is the daughter of Inachus and retells the story of Zeus falling in love with Io, the legendary wrath of Hera, and the metamorphosis by which Io becomes a beautiful white heifer. At another instant several generations later, Pausanias recounts another Io, descendant of Phoroneus, daughter of Iasus, who himself was the son of Argus and Ismene, the daughter of Asopus, or of Triopas and Sosis ; Io 's mother in the latter case was Leucane. Io 's father was called Peiren in the Catalogue of Women, and by Acusilaus, possibly a son of the elder Argus, also known as Peiras, Peiranthus or Peirasus. Io may therefore be identical to Callithyia, daughter of Peiranthus, as is suggested by Hesychius of Alexandria. Io was a priestess of the Goddess Hera in Argos, whose cult her father Inachus was supposed to have introduced to Argos. Zeus noticed Io, a mortal woman, and lusted after her. In the version of the myth told in Prometheus Bound she initially rejected Zeus ' advances, until her father threw her out of his house on the advice of oracles. According to some stories, Zeus then turned Io into a heifer in order to hide her from his wife ; others maintain that Hera herself transformed Io. 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. Hera then sent Argus Panoptes, who had 100 eyes, to watch Io and prevent Zeus from visiting her, and so Zeus sent Hermes 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. Zeus freed Io, still in the form of a heifer. In order to exact her revenge, Hera sent a gadfly to sting Io continuously, driving her to wander the world without rest. Io eventually crossed the path between the Propontis and the Black Sea, which thus acquired the name Bosporus ( meaning ox passage ), where she met Prometheus, 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 the Ionian Sea to Egypt, where she was restored to human form by Zeus. There, she gave birth to Zeus 's son Epaphus, and a daughter as well, Keroessa. She later married Egyptian king Telegonus. Their grandson, Danaos, eventually returned to Greece with his fifty daughters ( the Danaids ), as recalled in Aeschylus ' play The Suppliants. Paris Bordone - Zeus and Io - Kunstmuseum, Göteborg The myth of Io must have been well known to Homer, who often calls Hermes Argeiphontes, meaning `` Argus - slayer. '' Walter Burkert notes that the story of Io was told in the ancient epic tradition at least four times of which we have traces : in the Danais, in the Phoronis -- Phoroneus founded the cult of Hera, according to Hyginus ' Fabulae 274 and 143 -- in a fragment of the Hesiodic Aigimios, as well as in similarly fragmentary Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. A mourning commemoration of Io was observed at the Heraion of Argos into classical times. The ancients connected Io with the Moon, and in Aeschylus ' Prometheus Bound, where Io encounters Prometheus, she refers to herself as `` the horned virgin '', both bovine and lunar. Argive genealogy in Greek mythology Inachus Melia Zeus Io Phoroneus Epaphus Memphis Libya Poseidon Belus Achiroë Agenor Telephassa Danaus Pieria Aegyptus Cadmus Cilix Europa Phoenix Mantineus Hypermnestra Lynceus Harmonia Zeus Polydorus Sparta Lacedaemon Ocalea Abas Agave Sarpedon Rhadamanthus Autonoë Eurydice Acrisius Ino Minos Zeus Danaë Semele Zeus Perseus Dionysus Colour key : Male Female Deity In popular culture This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject 's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances ; add references to reliable sources if possible. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2017 ) In the 2010 film Clash of the Titans, Io was portrayed by British actress Gemma Arterton. The character was a major deviation from Greek mythology : instead of being Zeus ' lover, she was portrayed as a guide and later the lover of Perseus. She was cursed with agelessness for refusing a god 's romantic advances. Australian writer Ursula Dubosarsky 's play The Girl Who Was Turned Into A Cow, first published in the NSW School Magazine, is based on the myth of Io. In the video game Persona 3, Io is the starting persona of Yukari Takeba. Gallery Io Recognised by Her Father by Victor Honoré Janssens ( second half of 17th century ) Io wearing bovine horns watched over by Argos on Hera 's orders ( 1st century AD ) at Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy Hera and Io by Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem the Younger ( circa 1669 ) Jupiter and Io by John Hoppner ( 1785 ) at Denver Art Museum From Neueröffneter Musen - Tempel by Bernard Picart, ( 1733 ) from University of Heidelberg Juno ( Hera ) commits Io to Argus Panoptes by Francesco de Mura ( 1740 -- 1750 ) at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Italy Jupiter, Juno and Io by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino ( 1599 ) at Pinacoteca Malaspina Parent institution Musei Civici, Pavia Jupiter and Io, espied by Juno by Andrea Sacchi and Pier Francesco Mola ( 1600 - 1699 ) at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire ( Accredited Museum ) Juno, Jupiter and Io by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout Jupiter, Juno and Io by Arnold Houbraken Jupiter and Io by Jacob Pynas at The Fitzwilliam Museum, UK Io et Jupiter by Antonio da Correggio at Musée Ingres, Montauban Jupiter and Io by Hendrik Goltzius ( 1589 ) at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Notes Jump up ^ Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 590 ^ Jump up to : Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.1. 3 Jump up ^ Herodotus, Histories, 1.1 Jump up ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.583 ^ Jump up to : Hammond, edited by N.G.L. ; Scullard, H.H. ( 1970 ). The Oxford Classical Dictionary ( 2d ed. ). Oxford ( Eng. ) : Clarendon Press. p. 549. ISBN 0198691173. CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.1. 1 Jump up ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.25. 1 Jump up ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.16. 1 Jump up ^ Scholia on Euripides ' Orestes, 932 Jump up ^ Catalogue of Women. fr. 124 Jump up ^ Acusilaus, fr. 12 Jump up ^ M.L. West, The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women : Its Nature, Structure, and Origins ( Oxford, 1985 ) 77 Jump up ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.1. 3 Jump up ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 124. Jump up ^ Hesychius of Alexandria s.v. Ὶὼ Καλλιθύεσσα Jump up ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.1. 3 ^ Jump up to : Howatson, M.C.L. ; Chivers, I. ( 1993 ). The Oxford Concise Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford ( Eng. ) : Clarendon Press. pp. 288 -- 9. ISBN 0192827081. Jump up ^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women, 291 Jump up ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 650 - 730 Jump up ^ Burkert, Homo Necans ( 1974 ) 1983 : 164 note 14, giving bibliography. Jump up ^ Eustathius of Thessalonica commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, 92 ; the Byzantine encyclopedia Suda s.v. `` Io '', Hesychius, s.v. `` Io ''. Jump up ^ https://www.amazon.com/Io-Turned-Children-Metamorphoses-ebook/dp/B00AAQHNZY/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356852185&sr=1-2&keywords=dubosarsky External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Io ( mythology ). Wikisource has the text of The New Student 's Reference Work article Io. Theoi.com : Io : naiad nymph of Argolis and Egypt Assembles the essential references in Greek and Latin literature, in translation. Io engravings by Goltzius from the De Verda collection Warburg Institute Iconographic Database ( ca 250 images of Io and Argus ) GND : 124359906 VIAF : 35387480 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Io_(mythology)&oldid=841398276 '' Categories : Egypt in Greek mythology Metamorphoses in Greek mythology Greek mythological priestesses Mortal women of Zeus Mythological bovines Children of Inachus Mythological Greek characters Metamorphoses into animals in Greek mythology Hidden categories : CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list Articles containing Ancient Greek - language text Articles with trivia sections from August 2017 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Alemannisch Беларуская Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Magyar Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Română Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 40 more Edit links This page was last edited on 15 May 2018, at 16 : 13. 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Question: why did zeus turned io into a cow
Answer: in order to hide her from his wife