Boyoon and Chole, Jeju, March 2023
Original painting by Boyoon
Story by Chloe
Hera was the beautiful queen of Olympus. At first, when Zeus asked Hera to be his wife, she refused. In retaliation, Zeus created a thunderstorm, changed himself into a cuckoo pretending to be in distress, and flew into Hera's arms, seeking protection. Not knowing that the bird was Zeus, Hera hugged it close to keep it warm. However, suddenly, she found herself holding Zeus in her arms instead of the bird. This marked the beginning of Zeus and Hera’s relationship.
Hera was a very jealous wife and she hated all of Zeus's other lovers. She knew that Zeus often disguised himself and sneaked down to Earth to meet mortal girls. He knew that he would get into trouble, but he thought that the more lovers he took, the more children he would have – and this would be better for Greece! His demigod children would become great heroes and rulers, but this happiness did not last. Hera, not being able to control her temper, made many of his mortal lovers and their children suffer excruciating pain.
Hera paid close attention to Zeus; she decided to look down on earth to watch over him. She noticed a small thundercloud. These clouds made Hera suspicious, and she darted to where the cloud was. The truth was when Zeus flew down to Earth, he spotted a gorgeous river nymph, Io, and immediately fell in love. When he suspected Hera was coming, he transformed the girl into a cow hoping to hide her from his wife's view. Just like Io, the cow was beautiful. Hera was not easily fooled. Even though Hera knew the cow was Io, she pretended she saw nothing and asked Zeus to give her the cow. He could not simply refuse the wishes of his queen, so he was forced to hand Io over to her.
Hera tied lo to a tree, and made one of her servants, Argus, who had one hundred eyes all over his body, to keep an eye on the cow. He was a perfect guard since he never closed more than half of his eyes when everyone else was asleep.
However, Io, who could not bear eating grass all day, set her sorrowful eyes upon Olympus, begging Zeus for help. Zeus sent his son Hermes, the trickster god, to set her free. Hermes turned himself into a shepherd and distracted Argus's attention with music, making him drowsy. Once he had killed Argus, he untied the cow and freed her.
The moment Hera saw that Argus was dead and the cow had escaped, she sent a vicious gadfly to sting and chase after Io. To escape from the gadfly, Io ran all the way to Greece. In fact, due to the pain of the stings, she jumped across the strait which separated Europe from Asia. Regardless, the gadfly did not stop - it chased her to Egypt. Astonishingly, when the Egyptians saw the cow, who was snow-white, they worshipped her. lo became an Egyptian goddess, and Hera, who felt sorry for lo, decided that she would change her back into human shape, but only with a promise from Zeus that he would never look at Io again. From then on, Io lived as a goddess in Egypt and her descendants returned as glorious kings and queens. All the pain and suffering she had undergone was not in vain.
Comments