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| - Argus Panoptes was a giant with one hundred eyes, who Hera appointed as the guardian of Io, a mortal woman Zeus attempted to have an affair with. He was a very effective watchman indeed, for his time; he could keep constant watch on Io, having the ability to sleep with several eyes open. Zeus, wanting Io back, called upon Hermes to kill Argus. Hermes disguised himself as a shepherd, told Argus a long and sad saga until all of Argus's eyes were asleep, and then took the opportunity to slay him with a stone.
- The epithet Panoptes, reflecting his mythic role, set by Hera as a very effective watchman of Io, was described in a fragment of a lost poem Aigimios, attributed to Hesiod: In the 5th century and later, Argus' wakeful alertness was explained for an increasingly literal culture as his having so many eyes that only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time: there were always eyes still awake. In the 2nd century CE Pausanias noted at Argos, in the temple of Zeus Larissaios, an archaic image of Zeus with a third eye in the center of his forehead, allegedly Priam's Zeus Herkeios purloined from Troy. According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in a peacock's tail.
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| abstract
| - The epithet Panoptes, reflecting his mythic role, set by Hera as a very effective watchman of Io, was described in a fragment of a lost poem Aigimios, attributed to Hesiod: In the 5th century and later, Argus' wakeful alertness was explained for an increasingly literal culture as his having so many eyes that only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time: there were always eyes still awake. In the 2nd century CE Pausanias noted at Argos, in the temple of Zeus Larissaios, an archaic image of Zeus with a third eye in the center of his forehead, allegedly Priam's Zeus Herkeios purloined from Troy. According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in a peacock's tail. Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave. Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. She charged him to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. Hermes, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus's eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods. The myth makes the closest connection of Argos, the neatherd, with the bull. In the Library of pseudo-Apollodorus, "Argos killed the bull that ravaged Arcadia, then clothed himself in its skin." The sacrifice of Argos liberated Io to wander the earth distracted by a gadfly sent by Hera.
- Argus Panoptes was a giant with one hundred eyes, who Hera appointed as the guardian of Io, a mortal woman Zeus attempted to have an affair with. He was a very effective watchman indeed, for his time; he could keep constant watch on Io, having the ability to sleep with several eyes open. Zeus, wanting Io back, called upon Hermes to kill Argus. Hermes disguised himself as a shepherd, told Argus a long and sad saga until all of Argus's eyes were asleep, and then took the opportunity to slay him with a stone. One of his great deeds was slaying Echidna, a serpent-legged monster, as she slept in her cave.
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