Prometheus and Io

From: Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus (maybe), ca. 430 BCE; Metamorphosis by Ovid, ca. 8 CE

"The heart of Zeus thou hast made hot with love
And Hera's curse even as a runner stripped
Pursues thee ever on thine endless round."
-Prometheus, Prometheus Bound

So, Prometheus is primarily known as the man who granted flame to the humans, and this is how we are now able to cook, scare predators, stay warm at night, etc. This angered the Gods, or at least Zeus, and Prometheus was bound to a mountain in Caucasus as punishment. One day, he sees a really crazy-looking cow come up to him, except she's talking like a human girl, and is very worried about being lost. She looks downright frazzled. Turns out, Prometheus had heard of her, and she had heard of him--both the victims of (capricious, overblown) divine retribution. They then relate their respective stories to one-another.

Io, as a girl, was apparently a hot little number--so much so, that Zeus' lightning bolts were goin' off like crazy. Zeus sent her messages in her dreams every night, saying things like "With you it is [Zeus'] will to capture love." But Zeus was afraid of Hera, his wife, and her famous jealousy. So he cooked up a little scheme for hiding his and Io's relationship: when he went down to visit Io, he created a thick swirling of dirt around them, blocking out the light and unwanted observers. Of course, this was also very conspicuous. So Hera went down there and instantly suspected her cad of a husband. She dissipated the dirt, and there stood Zeus who, thinking quickly, turned Io into a beautiful calf. He basically shrugged and said he didn't know what was happening, but Hera saw through his ill-conceived deceit. (Ovid says that this is why lovers may tell each other white lies). She asked for the calf as a present, and Zeus could think of no reason to object. She then told Argus Panoptus (Panopticon, what!) to watch over it, which was pretty easy for him: he has, like, a ton of eyes. Well, Zeus was pretty upset by how Io suffered under Argus, so he asked his son, Hermes, to kill the hundred-eyed bastard.

Hermes was a clever guy, probably the cleverest of all gods. For example, the term hermeneutics, interpreting texts to find hidden meaning, comes from his name. Anyhow, he knew that Argus was literally always looking, but thought that he'd be able to lull every single one of his eyes to sleep. He tried for a while, and eventually succeeded by telling him what was apparently the most boring story ever about how Pan impressed Syrinx, a nymph, by making her the first ever pan flute (or "syrinx" (from which we get "syringe")). Bored literally to death, Argus finally went to sleep and Hermes slayed the hell out of him.  Look, check it out on this old pot:

This time, it was Hera's turn to be upset. First, she honored Argus by taking all his eyes and putting them onto her favorite bird, the peacock. She then sent a gadfly to repeatedly sting Io, driving her up and down the coast in a craze. The gadfly was so annoying that Io couldn't even sleep or drink or anything, man. Due to her tireless, divinely-imposed wandering, the part of the Mediterranean she skirted is called the Ionian, and the river she crossed is called the Bosphorus (Ford of the Cow). She really hated this fly.

"What does it profit me to live! Oh, why
Do I not throw myself from this rough crag
And in one leap rid me of all my pain?
Better to die at once than live, and all
My days be evil."
-Io, Prometheus Bound

Prometheus didn't really have much to tell Io, but was sympathetic about her suffering. He also told her that she would one day reach the Nile, where Zeus would restore her human form. She would also have a son with him named Epaphus, who would become King of Egypt. More importantly, Prometheus promised Io that her descendant would be "one glorious with the bow, bold-hearted, / And he shall set me free." Indeed, Io's hereditary line eventually spawned Hercules, who went on to become one of the greatest hero in myth. And he freed Prometheus. But not before Prometheus was plunged into the abyss by an enraged Zeus' thunderbolts, after Prometheus refused to name the participants in a coup conspiracy.

Notes:
-Prometheus' story is continued in other parts of Aeschylus' Prometheia trilogy, but the other two plays have not been as well preserved.
-Aristophanes and Euripides both mention Prometheus Bound in some of their works, which appeared roughly 25-30 years later.
-Prometheus' defiance earned him some resurgent popularity in the middle Romantic period, and a place in the poems of Goethe ("Prometheus") and Lord Byron ("Prometheus"), as well as Shelley's sequel to Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound.
-Io was often associated with the moon, which in turn was associated with virginity. Hence her title, "The Horned Virgin"
-Homer's awareness of the myth is evinced by his references to Hermes as "Argus-slayer."
-After bearing a child with Zeus, Io marries Telegonus, King of Egypt. Their grandso, Danaos, and his fifty daughters, the Danaids, eventually return to Greece. (See Aeschylus, The Suppliants).