Argus Panoptes (#171)

Remember fact #143 about the dress of Elizabeth I.? It was kind of an Argus Panoptes themed dress.

Argus Panoptes was a giant in the Greek Mythology. The epithet (remember fact #137?) “panoptes” means “all-seeing”. He had hundreds of eyes all over his body and only a couple of them were asleep at a time, which made him a perfect guardsman.

As we know, Hera’s husband Zeus was notoriously unfaithful. When she had to deal again with one of his lovers, this time it was Io, she morphed Io into a cow and tied her to a tree. Then she employed Argus to watch over her. Zeus, not amused, told Hercules Hermes to kill Argus and free Io. Hercules struggled, but managed in the end. Argus-eyed nowadays means to watch something really, really closely.

What happened to Argus Panoptes after his death? Hera wanted to his services and came up with a beautiful idea. In order to always remember him, she put all of his eyes on the tail of the peacock.

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