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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0517

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Zeus, Io, and Epaphos 439

Cho. She set a sleepless watch, with myriad eyes.

King. What all-seeing herdman of one heifer ? Say.

Cho. Argus, the child of Earth,—whom Hermes slew.

King. What framed she more for the poor cow's annoy ?

Cho. A goading gad-fly, giving her no rest.

King. 'Tis called the "breese" by neighbours of the Nile.

Cho. This drave her, banished, on a distant course.

King. Your tale fits smoothly with the truths I know.

Cho. Canopus and then Memphis saw her come.

*****

Cho. Zeus with a finger-touch begat a child.

King. How then was named the heifer's birth divine ?

Cho. Named from the touch that gat him, Epaphus.

*****

Cho. Libya that holds a wide extent of earth.
King. What other child of hers hast thou in mind ?
Cho. Bel, with two sons, sire of my father here.
King. Of thrilling moment is this name. Declare it.
Cho. Danaiis, whose brother fifty sons begat.
King. His name, too, let thy liberal words reveal.
Cho. yEgyptus. Now thou knowest my primal race.

Act therefore as toward Argive visitants.
King. In truth ye seem to me to be of kin

Ancestrally to Argos1.

This version of-the myth involves a sort of thrust and parry-
between Zeus and Hera, which appealed to the dramatic instinct
of Aischylos and is well expressed in the rapid exchange of his
short, sharp, single lines. Zeus deals the first blow by falling in
love with Hera's priestess, Io. Hera thwarts Zeus by changing Io
into a cow. Zeus outwits Hera, becoming a bull to prosecute his
amour. Hera, not yet vanquished, sets Argos Panoptes, the 'All-
seeing,' to guard the cow. Hermes, presumably at Zeus' bidding,
slays Argos. Hera, as a last resource, drives the cow by means of
a gad-fly to the furthest limits of the world. Even at the furthest
limits of the world Zeus touches her and gains his end. Thus the
omnipotence of Zeus is vindicated : play-wright, performers, and
audience return home well-content.

Not so we. Aischylos' plot is obviously put together out of
old, indeed primitive, materials. And we are, for the moment,
mainly interested in recovering the original form of the story.
This may be, probably is, a task beyond our powers. Nevertheless
it will not do to neglect divergent accounts that have reached us
from other sources. They may at least help towards the recon-
struction of an earlier version.

1 Aisch. suppl. 291—325 trans. L. Campbell, cp. P.v. 846 ff., Bakchyl. 18 Io, Eur.
Phoen. 676 ff., Apollod. 2. 1. 3 f., Hyg. fab. 145, 149, 155, 275, Ov. met. 1. 748 ff., alib.
 
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