Richibi’s Weblog

    “Juno and Argus“ (c.1611) 

 

           Peter Paul Rubens

 

                         ______

 

 

 

                  While Hermes pip’d, and sung, and told his tale,
                  The keeper’s winking eyes began to fail, 

 

The keeper, Argus, of Io, nymph

become heifer

                  And drowsie slumber on the lids to creep; 
                  ‘Till all the watchman was at length asleep. 

 

all the watchman, all of Argus‘ eyes, 

were closed, asleep, at length, after 

a time 

 

                  Then soon the God his voice, and song supprest; 

 

the God, Hermes, messenger of the

gods, on a mission from Jove / 

Jupiter / Zeus to save Io, nymph 

become heifer

 

his voice, and song supprest, Hermes 

stopped talking, stopped playing his

song, his music

                  And with his pow’rful rod confirm’d his rest: 

 

his powerful rod, the caduceus, with

which Hermes could both waken those

asleep as well lull the wakeful to

slumber

                  Without delay his crooked faulchion drew, 

 

faulchion, now spelled falchion, 

is a short sword with only one 

sharp edge, a sort of sickle

 

since falchions go back only to the 

13th Century, Dryden‘s translation 

from the Latin has to be an 

anachronism

 

just saying

                  And at one fatal stroke the keeper slew.
                  Down from the rock fell the dissever’d head,
                  Opening its eyes in death; and falling, bled;
                  And mark’d the passage with a crimson trail:
                  Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold, and pale;
                  And all his hundred eyes, with all their light,
                  Are clos’d at once, in one perpetual night.
                  These Juno takes, that they no more may fail,
                  And spreads them in her peacock’s gaudy tail. 

 

see above

 

Juno, wife of Jove / Jupiter / Zeus,
queen, therefore, of the gods and 

goddesses

                  Impatient to revenge her injur’d bed, 

 

Juno had been offended by the fact 

that Jove / Jupiter / Zeus had

transgressed 

 

                  She wreaks her anger on her rival’s head; 

 

her rival, Io

                  With Furies frights her from her native home; 

 

Furies, also known as Erinyes, 

goddesses of vengeance, the 

oldest of all the deities, they live 

in Erebus, the Underworld, look 

frightful, snakes in their hair, bat’s 

wings, and haunt, unsettle, the 

disrespectful, the insolent, those 

who betray, are not true to, their 

word 

 

frights, frightens

                  And drives her gadding, round the world to roam: 

 

her, Io, nymph become heifer

 

to gad, to wander

                  Nor ceas’d her madness, and her flight, before
                  She touch’d the limits of the Pharian shore. 

 

Pharian, relating to Pharos, island off 

the coast of Alexandria, notable for 

its lighthouse, itself called Pharos, 

one of the Seven Wonders of the 

Ancient World

                  At length, arriving on the banks of Nile,
                  Wearied with length of ways, and worn with toil,
                  She laid her down; 

 

She laid her down, she laid herself 

down, stopped, stayed in place

 

                                                 and leaning on her knees,
                  Invok’d the cause of all her miseries: 

 

the cause of all her miseries, Jove /

Jupiter / Zeus, who’d abandoned 

her, Io, to the wrath of Juno, his 

wife, when she’d discovered him 

to be unfaithful 

                  And cast her languishing regards above,
                  For help from Heav’n, and her ungrateful Jove.
                  She sigh’d, she wept, she low’d; ’twas all she cou’d;
                  And with unkindness seem’d to tax the God. 

 

to tax, to accuse, to make 

responsible for

                  Last, with an humble pray’r, she beg’d repose,
                  Or death at least, to finish all her woes. 

 

repose, relief, Io, nymph become 

heifer, has completely had it

                  Jove heard her vows, and with a flatt’ring look,
                  In her behalf to jealous Juno spoke, 

 

a flatt’ring look, a seductive approach,

toward Juno, his reproachful wife

                  He cast his arms about her neck, and said,
                  Dame, rest secure; no more thy nuptial bed
                  This nymph shall violate; 

 

Dame, or Madam

 

                                                       by Styx I swear, 

 

Styx, one of the five rivers that 

separate Earth from the 

Underworld, also one of the 

earliest goddesses, after whom

the river itself was named, who 

had, significantly, sided with Jove /

Jupiter / Zeus during the Giants’ 

War, for which, upon having won, 

Jove / Jupiter / Zeus ordained that 

all oaths be sworn upon her, Styx, 

much as we, in our own day, swear 

upon Bibles

 

this all precedes, note, Bibles

 

                  And every oath that binds the Thunderer. 

 

the Thunderer, Jove / Jupiter, Zeus,

god, indeed, of Thunder

                  The Goddess was appeas’d;  

 

The Goddess, Juno

         

                                                       and at the word
                  Was Io to her former shape restor’d.
                  The rugged hair began to fall away;
                  The sweetness of her eyes did only stay,
                  Tho’ not so large; her crooked horns decrease;
                  The wideness of her jaws and nostrils cease:
                  Her hoofs to hands return, in little space: 

 

little space, the blink of an eye

                  The five long taper fingers take their place,
                  And nothing of the heyfer now is seen,
                  Beside the native whiteness of the skin.
                  Erected on her feet she walks again:
                  And two the duty of the four sustain. 

 

rather than walk on four feet, Io

now stands erect, [e]rected, on 

two

                  She tries her tongue; her silence softly breaks,
                  And fears her former lowings when she speaks: 

 

she can hardly believe she’s  

become, not just a nymph,

but indeed 

                  A Goddess now, through all th’ Aegyptian State:
                  And serv’d by priests, who in white linnen wait. 

 

Io has become the Egyptian 

goddess Isis

 

but that’s an entirely other story 

 

stay tuned

 

 

R ! chard