Jupiter and Io – Wikipedia, Notes on Book 1: Io from Metamorphoses – BookRags.com, Myth about Jupiter and Io – Windows to the Universe, Io was a priestess of the Roman goddess Juno. Juno was the jealous wife of Jupiter, the king of the gods. Jupiter was very unfaithful. When Jupiter fell in love with Io, he changed himself into the shape of a dark cloud to hide himself from his jealous wife Juno.
Jupiter is no better. He lusts after Io , rapes her , and turn s her into a cow when his wife gets suspicious. Jupiter’s crime is both more violent than Apollo’s and more hypocritical he commits it directly after flooding the earth to wipe it clean of impious mortals. The other gods are no less hypocritical.
Jupiter threw his arms round his wife’s neck and pleaded for an end to vengeance, saying ‘Do not fear, in future she will never be a source of pain’ and he called the Stygian waters to witness his words. As the goddess grows calmer , Io regains her previous appearance, and becomes what she once was. The rough hair leaves her body , the horns disappear , the great eyes grow smaller , the gaping mouth shrinks , the shoulders and hands return, and the hooves vanish, each hoof changing back …
She clears the fog but not before Jove hides Io in the form of a cow. Juno claims the beautiful cow as her own, giving her for safe-keeping to the watchman, Argus, who has one-hundred eyes and never closes them all at once. Io is able to communicate her fate to her father by drawing in the dirt with her hoof.
Venus and Cupid with a Satyr, Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle, The Loves of the Gods, The Rape of Europa, Danaë
