Hera often suffers insults from her husband Zeus. This is what happened when Zeus fell in love with the beautiful Io and, in order to hide her from his wife Hera, turned Io into a cow. But the Thunderer did not save Io. Hera saw the snow-white cow Io and demanded that Zeus give it to her. Zeus could not refuse this to Hera. Hera, having taken possession of Io, gave her under the protection of the stoic Argus. Unhappy Io suffered, she could not tell anyone about her suffering; turned into a cow, she was speechless. Argus, who did not know sleep, guarded Io; she could not hide from him. Zeus saw her suffering. Calling on his son Hermes, he ordered him to kidnap Io.
Hermes quickly rushed to the top of the mountain where the steadfast guard Io stood guard. He put Argus to sleep with his speeches. As soon as his hundred eyes closed, Hermes drew his curved sword and cut off Argus’s head with one blow. Io was freed. But Zeus did not save Io from the wrath of Hera. She sent a monstrous gadfly. With its sting, the gadfly drove the unfortunate sufferer Io, distraught from torment, from country to country. She could not find peace for herself anywhere. In a frantic run, she rushed further and further, and the gadfly flew after her, constantly piercing her body with its sting; the sting of the gadfly burned Io like a hot iron. Where did Io run, what countries did she visit! Finally, after long wanderings, she reached in the country of the Scythians, in the far north, the rock to which the titan Prometheus was chained. He predicted to the unfortunate woman that only in Egypt would she get rid of her torment. Io rushed on, driven by the gadfly. She endured much torment and saw many dangers before she reached Egypt. There, on the banks of the blessed Nile, Zeus returned her to her former image, and her son Epaphus was born. He was the first king of Egypt and the founder of a great generation of heroes, to which the greatest hero of Greece, Hercules, belonged.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru