Io (mythology)

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Hermes , Io (as a cow) and Argos , schwarzfigurige Amphora the Northampton Group , 540 - 530V. Chr. , State Collection of Antiquities , Munich (Inv. 585)
Location of the Ionian Sea

Io ( ancient Greek Ἰώ Iṓ ) is the daughter of the river god Inachos and Melia in Greek mythology . She was a lover of Zeus and bore him Epaphos .

myth

Zeus once fell in love with Io, a priestess of Hera , and seduced her. However, this was noticed by his jealous wife Hera. To cover up the act, Zeus turned Io into a white cow. Hera discovered this, however, and asked for the cow as a gift, which Zeus was unable to refuse.

Hera had the cow guarded by the hundred-eyed giant Argos . Out of sympathy for Io, Zeus sent the heavenly messenger Hermes to Argos with the order to kill him. The latter put him to sleep with his flute and then cut off his head so that Io - still in animal form - could escape.

Hera sent a cattle dassel to the freed Io , which she ceaselessly pursued and drove through the whole world. (The deep whirring of this brake, which is life-threatening for cattle, can drive whole herds of cows to flight.) On the run, Io crossed the sea, which was later named after her ( Ionian Sea ) and crossed the ford which owes its name to it ( Bosporus , Greek for cow or ox ford), from Europe to Asia.

Finally Hera allowed himself to be appeased and Io, meanwhile reached the Nile, regained her human form and gave birth to Epaphos.

According to Herodotus, Ios father Inachus was king of Argos . Once Phoenicians came to Argos to sell their goods. When the king's daughter Io came to the stands, the Phoenicians had stolen her, whereupon the Greeks retaliated and stole the daughter of the king of Tire , who was called Europa . Thus, reports Herodotus, a number of mutual women robberies arose, such as the robbery of Medea ( Argonauts legend ) and Helena , which triggered the Trojan War . However, Herodotus also reports a version of the story according to which Io was pregnant by the captain of the Phoenician ship, which is why she voluntarily went with the Phoenicians out of fear of the anger of her parents.

Artistic processing

Antonio da Correggio: Jupiter and Io , Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The subject of the seduction of Ios by Jupiter was presented artistically several times. One of the most famous illustrations is the painting Jupiter and Io by Antonio da Correggio .

Designations

The Jupiter moon Io , like Callisto, Ganymede and Europa, was named after Jupiter's love affair of the same name. Among others, Io was also the eponym for the Ionian Sea , part of the Mediterranean Sea. In between 1902 and 1904, the British zoologist named Oldfield Thomas three bat species by Io: the East Asian breakfast Noctule ( Ia io ), the Thomas-yellow bat ( rhogeessa io ) and the Thomas-sac-winged bat ( balantiopteryx io ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Io  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus , Histories 1,1.
  2. ^ Richard Engelmann : Io . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, column 264 ( digitized version ). In Hyginus , Fabulae 145 it is called Argia.
  3. ↑ Aeschylus , Die Schutzflehenden 291; Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 1, 3, 1.
  4. ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 1, 3, 2: ἔφθειρε; Ovid , Metamorphoses 1, 600: rapuitque pudorem. In another version, Io had previously been animated to this connection in dreams (Aeschylus, Prometheus 640-672).
  5. ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 1, 3, 2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1, 652.
  6. ↑ Or Hera turned her into a cow (Aeschylus, Die Schutzflehenden 299; Lukian , Götterdialoge 3).
  7. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 1, 588-621.
  8. ^ Ovid, Metamorphosen 1, 622-719.
  9. ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 1, 3, 5.
  10. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 1, 728-743.
  11. ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 1, 3, 6; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1, 748.
  12. ↑ Herodotus, Histories 1, 1.
  13. ↑ Herodotus, Histories 1, 2.
  14. ↑ Herodotus, Histories 1, 3.
  15. ↑ Herodotus, Histories 1, 5.