h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Tale of Io and Argus - A862850
Author: Mikeguy - U196456

Read it, tell me if its good.

Hi Mikeguy.

Greek myths. Right up my street and a good topic for the guide.

A couple of practical issues first. I would suggest changing the title to 'Greek Myths: The Tale of Io and Argus' - as you have subtitled it. I knew what to expect, others might not.

See my entry on Greek Myths: Heracles A852833, which was done as part of a University project, which is behind schedule, although hopefully will still come about.

Second. There's a major typo - Zues should be Zeus. There are a few others, however this is the biggie.

I'll have a better look at it when I've got back from work, however I do know that Robert Graves, who has written books on the Greek myths argues that many of the myths mirror events that went on in pre-classical Greek times. I'll have a look around at any origins for this story and feed them back to you.

Good topic- needs a few tweaks
I´d suggest running this through a spell checker and to carefully read this through afterwards. One error that I spotted was "new" instead of "knew" and that wouldn´t get caught (@thingamajigs for not working properly)
Fishy (sorry Zarquon´s Singing Fish) mentioned the Zues/Zeus bit, which is very important.
Also, I´m not sure that you can state that Zeus´s objective was to populate the world with half-gods and half-humans, my impression of him has always been that he was a randy little lecher, more intent on his own pleasure than the wellbeing of humans, but that´s probably Hollywood for you...
Don´t give up, despite these points, I´d like to see this sorted
cheers ismarah

Well, I ran it through spell-check (had to add a few names too) and voila! Well, I'm hoping that there aren't many more mistakes to correct...

I also added a bit at the end... just for fun...

I know I intended to look up my sources for this to give a handle on the underlying issues, however I've been busy in LL. I'll have a look this evening, hopefully.

I made my entire last section into footnotes... I'm wondering if I overdid it though... If so I'll switch it back into a section.

The error I mentioned, "new" is still in the third paragraph.
Footnote 12 is rather filled with typos...
Please don´t start sentences with "and" (I know it´s tempting, I do it too)
Also, the bit about Hermes on trial for murder reads a bit funny, jarring compared with the rest of the entry, maybe you could look at that?
cheers ismarah

Any more comments on this one? Possibly someone who knows a bit about Greek Myths would be useful.

Researcher PSG

I like this entry very much. I'm a bit rusty on my Greek Myths, so I can't vouch for every detail being correct, but it rings true. Is the monster Argus slew called 'Echdina' or 'Echidna'? That looked funny to me, but then, it's a funny name.

A couple of points - aren't the piles of stones called 'cairns'?

Also, this sentence: "As for Argus, to preserve his memory, Hera took his eyes and placed them upon a bird that was later known as the peacock's tail." That needs rewording, because right now it says that there's a bird knows as a peacock's tail.

Otherwise, great stuff. I really like the intro, explaining why Greeks were perfectly justified in making up myths!


GTB

I promised earlier that I would have a look at my sources and I haven't had the time - however, I will go and have a look, and comment by the end of the weekend!

I did promise to look up my sources on this story and at long last - I have.

I really disagree with the first paragraph. True myths might be defined as 'narrative shorthand' of ritual mime performed on public festivals, concerned with religious matters. Subjects promoted the fertility or stability of ancients queendoms or kingdoms (the queendoms in general preceeded the kingdoms in the Greek speaking world). There were also other stories which could be classified as philosophical allegory, sentimental fables, embroidered history, political propoganda, historic saga, moral legends, realistic fiction, etc. etc.

The story of Io has variants. When Zeus turned her into a white cow and gave her to Hera, Argus was set to guard her, and Hermes played the lute and sent him to sleep, before crushing him with a boulder and cutting off his head. Hera then set a gadfly to chase Io all over the world.

Io bore Epahus (rumoured to be the divine bull Aphis). I wonder whether the story of the bees is a confusion with 'apis' meaning bee in Latin. Some say that she died of a gadfly sting, turning white, violet/red and then black.

Historically, the Argives worshipped the moon as a cow. The three colours were white for the new moon, red for harvest moon and black for the waning moon. They also symbolise the triple goddess - maiden, mother and crone. Io Argives' priestesses did a ritual heifer dance pretending to be stung by gadflies. This was a rain-making dance. Io is another name for 'cow-eyed Hera'.

So, myths are rather more complex than mere stories. There are other stories around Io, which appear to have historical implications, although they are not mentioned in this entry.

The version I remember agrees with this entry in how Hermes killed Argus, ie, without boulders and swords. Are these just variations, or did I read a sanitized version?


GTB

This was from Robert Graves, who has done an enormous amount of research into the Greek Myths. When I was in hospital, many years ago, I asked for two books from home - The Greek Myths:1 and Katharine Briggs Dictionary of British Folk Tales.

There are often several versions of the same myth arising at different locations and different times. I would imagine that Argus would have been physically killed rather than dying of boredom, however that doesn't mean that that's invalid. Graves looks at the historical and religious contexts as well. Some of the stories have been compacted into a single whole, as this one obviously has and have several strand to them.

It may be better to say that another version says that Hermes crushed him with a boulder then cut off his head after he fell asleep.

This has interesting stuff about the definition of myths:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blplato.htm

Hey Mikeguy - can you let me know when you get round to updating this entry so I can process it for inclusion in the Edited Guide.

Thank you my friend.

Just to let y'all know, I'm not going to process this for the EG just yet as it needs a little tweak or two.

Having said that, I can't wait to see this on the Front Page.

Cheers for now.

Ashley

Hey, MikeGuy!

Ahem! MikeGuy?

o/|

No sign of him since November 3rd

Mikeguy,
If you are listening to this, then don't let this entry wither on the vine. It just needs a tweak or two before it gets into the EG. If you don't respond soon, then one of us Scouts will have to call in the Grim Reaper, who generally has an awful lot of other things to do

Cheers
FM