The Bards' Guild of Erdreja

Zeus and Io (and What Queen Hera Did About it)
A Legend of Greacia

Note from Debreni:
Since any number of folk have played the card game 'Zeus and Hera' ,which is loosely based on this story, I thought it would be appropriate to put it here, even if it is a much condensed version of the story.

Zeus fell in love (again) with a very beautiful priestess named Io. Alas for Zeus and his desire to keep this a secret, Io was a priestess of Queen Hera. To keep his wife from viewing his successful seduction of Io he covered the world with clouds. This backfired somewhat and Hera became suspicious. She descended from Olympus, clearing clouds as she went, and finding her husband standing next to a white heifer, inquired where it had come from. Zeus told her it had sprung from the very ground and that he was as surprised by this as she would have been. Now, Queen Hera is no fool and this somewhat obvious lie did not deceive her, so she asked her husband if he would give her this miraculous cow. Turning down such a reasonable request would have given the whole thing away, so Zeus gave Io, who he had panic-transformed, to his wife.

Hera sent the cow away and arranged for Argus to watch over her. Since Argus had one hundred eyes and could sleep with half of them open, he was the perfect watchman. In desperation, Zeus sent Hermes to retrieve Io. Disguised as a shepherd, Hermes had to employ all his skills as a musician and storyteller, and deceiver, to gain the confidence of Argus and lull him into sleep. Once asleep, the Messenger put out those eyes that were still awake and killed Hera’s servant. She wept for him and as a memorial put his eyes into the tail of her favourite bird, the peacock.

Now, Io was free of her watchman but Hera sent the first ever gad-fly to sting the still bovine woman. This pushed her to near madness, and trying to escape she wandered the world. During her travels she came across Prometheus, still chained, who told her she would journey for many years but one day she would be changed back and bear a child whose descendant would be a great hero who would set him free.

His predictions came true. Eventually the lovers both evaded Queen Hera and Zeus restored Io to her human form. She was still beautiful and Zeus was still in love, and in the passage of time she bore a son, Epaphus. Ten generations followed and the eleventh, the great Herakles, set Prometheus free.