INTRODUCTION
number of eyes of Argos allowed him to have always some open and vigilant, it was necessary for Hermes first to lull him to sleep by means of the syrinx, the shepherds' mouth-organ of reeds joined with wax (l. 574, cf. Ovid. Met. i. 687; Valerius Flaccus, Arg. iv. 384), and then fall upon him suddenly and unawares (l. 680).
Traces of the wanderings of Io were detected by the Greeks all over the earth. The identification of her with Isis brought her to Egypt; there, as Prometheus is made to describe it, Zeus at last comes near to her, and she conceives miraculously by the touch of his hand. Her son Epaphos is a Greek transformation of the Apis bull, taking shape originally, no doubt, among the Greek traders and mercenaries who frequented Egypt: he appears here simply as a king of Egypt. His descendant Danaos returns with his fifty daughters to Argos, and thus renews the link between Io and her native land.
All this was legend which the tragedians found already current. But if Io was to be brought on to the stage one modification was necessary. A
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