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Typhon
Hera’s servant. After Zeus turned Io into a cow, Hera ordered Argos to guard Io and keep her away from Zeus. According to Greek mythology, Argos is covered with a hundred eyes, and he is represented in the gadfly that relentlessly pursues Io in Prometheus Bound. Zeus couldn’t get close to Io with Argos guarding her, so he ordered Hermes to kill Argos. Io claims that she is bitten by “the ghost of earthbound Argos,” as the gadfly harasses her and prods her to continue wandering.
Argos Quotes in Prometheus Bound
The Prometheus Bound quotes below are all either spoken by Argos or refer to Argos . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prometheus Bound
Quotes
[…] Immediately my shape and mind
became distorted, my head grew horns, and I,
chased by the gadfly, fled with frantic leaps
to that sweet stream, Cerchnea, good to drink from,
and Lerna’s spring. But my appointed cowherd
was earthborn Argos, terrible in his wrath.
He followed me, he watched my steps,
peering with his countless eyes.
Then an unhoped-for sudden death destroyed him.
But I continued, driven by the god-sent scourge,
the gadfly, from land to land.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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