Ovid: “Love, Myths and Other stories” – VI
Metamorphoses Book I: Zeus and Io
The painting represents the themes of the imprisonment and the liberation of Io. The young woman is represented on the left, seated on a stool. Her face is characterized by two small horns on the forehead: they identify Io metamorphosed in a heifer. Even the cow painted behind her confirms her identity. Hermes is standing in the middle of the scene, with his left foot resting on a rock. The god is portrayed in the act of offering a "syrinx" - panpipes - to Argos. Here the naked giant is seated and holds a “pedum”. This attribute characterizes Argos as a shepherd.
Hermes, disguised as a shepherd, complete with panpipes, strikes up a conversation with Argus and entertains him with stories, during which more and more of the guard ’ s eyes close in sleepiness. When Argos wants to know the origin of the panpipes, Mercury starts to tell the story of Syrinx and her metamorphosis into reeds – halfway through which Argus falls asleep completely and has his head cut off by Mercury. In Ovid's account Ovid, Met. I, 713-722, the syrinx is the fulcrum of the narration because, this musical instrument is used by Hermes to sent to sleep and then behead the guardian of Io. Hera transferred Argos’s eyes to the tail of the peacock, her favorite bird.
… talia dicturus vidit Cyllenius omnes
subcubuisse oculos adopertaque lumina somno ;
supprimit extemplo vocem firmatque soporem 715
languida permuleens medieata lumina virga.
nee mora, faleato nutantem vulnerat ense,
qua collo est confine caput, saxoque cruentum
deieit et maculat praeruptam sanguine rupem.
Arge, iaees, quodque in tot lumina lumen habebas, 720
exstinetum est, centumque oculos nox occupat una.
Excipit hos volucrisque suae Saturnia pennis
collocat et gemmis caudam stellantibus inplet.
“When Hermes was going on to tell this story, he saw that all those eyes had yielded and were closed in sleep. Straightway he checks his words, and deepens Argos’ slumber by passing his magic wand over those sleep-faint eyes. And forthwith he smites with his hooked sword the nodding head just where it joins the neck, and sends it bleeding down the rocks, defiling the rugged cliff with blood. Argus, thou liest low; the light which thou hadst within thy many fires is all put out ; and one darkness fills thy hundred eyes.
Saturnia [Hera] took these eyes and set them on the feathers of her bird, filling his tail with star-like jewels.”
Translation: Frank Justus Miller, “Ovid - Metamorphoses”
Source: exhibition note
Fresco From Pompeii, Isis Temple
AD 60 – 79 (4th style)
Naples, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
Ovid: “Love, Myths and Other stories” – VI
Metamorphoses Book I: Zeus and Io
The painting represents the themes of the imprisonment and the liberation of Io. The young woman is represented on the left, seated on a stool. Her face is characterized by two small horns on the forehead: they identify Io metamorphosed in a heifer. Even the cow painted behind her confirms her identity. Hermes is standing in the middle of the scene, with his left foot resting on a rock. The god is portrayed in the act of offering a "syrinx" - panpipes - to Argos. Here the naked giant is seated and holds a “pedum”. This attribute characterizes Argos as a shepherd.
Hermes, disguised as a shepherd, complete with panpipes, strikes up a conversation with Argus and entertains him with stories, during which more and more of the guard ’ s eyes close in sleepiness. When Argos wants to know the origin of the panpipes, Mercury starts to tell the story of Syrinx and her metamorphosis into reeds – halfway through which Argus falls asleep completely and has his head cut off by Mercury. In Ovid's account Ovid, Met. I, 713-722, the syrinx is the fulcrum of the narration because, this musical instrument is used by Hermes to sent to sleep and then behead the guardian of Io. Hera transferred Argos’s eyes to the tail of the peacock, her favorite bird.
… talia dicturus vidit Cyllenius omnes
subcubuisse oculos adopertaque lumina somno ;
supprimit extemplo vocem firmatque soporem 715
languida permuleens medieata lumina virga.
nee mora, faleato nutantem vulnerat ense,
qua collo est confine caput, saxoque cruentum
deieit et maculat praeruptam sanguine rupem.
Arge, iaees, quodque in tot lumina lumen habebas, 720
exstinetum est, centumque oculos nox occupat una.
Excipit hos volucrisque suae Saturnia pennis
collocat et gemmis caudam stellantibus inplet.
“When Hermes was going on to tell this story, he saw that all those eyes had yielded and were closed in sleep. Straightway he checks his words, and deepens Argos’ slumber by passing his magic wand over those sleep-faint eyes. And forthwith he smites with his hooked sword the nodding head just where it joins the neck, and sends it bleeding down the rocks, defiling the rugged cliff with blood. Argus, thou liest low; the light which thou hadst within thy many fires is all put out ; and one darkness fills thy hundred eyes.
Saturnia [Hera] took these eyes and set them on the feathers of her bird, filling his tail with star-like jewels.”
Translation: Frank Justus Miller, “Ovid - Metamorphoses”
Source: exhibition note
Fresco From Pompeii, Isis Temple
AD 60 – 79 (4th style)
Naples, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome