THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

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FABULA XIII.
IO MUTATA IN VAC CAM, ARGO TRADITUR.
Jupiter in love with lo, the daughter of Inachus, and surprised by Juno,
changes her into a heifer to escape the jealousy of the goddess. The
heifer is presented to Juno at her earnest solicitation, and delivered to the
care of Argus, who has a hundred eyes.
EXPLICATIO.
THE story of lo, as given by Ovid, presents so tangled a warp of diverse
histories, traditions, and allegories, that it is almost impossible to weave
from it a web of consistent narrative or explanation. Herodotus reports,
that lo was carried off from Argos by Phenician merchants, who carried
her to Egypt; and Diodorus Siculus says, that on account of her beauty
Osiris, the king of Egypt, fell in love with her and married her. They
taught mankind agriculture, and for this benefaction were worshipped as
gods by the Egyptians, her name being changed to Isis. Diodorus says,
that Osiris was also called Jupiter. This professed historical account
agrees in part with Ovid, but does not explain ID'S metamorphosis, her
wanderings, the death of Argus, and other circumstances of the story.
The fabulous manner in which the Apis is produced, as given in the
note on Epaphus, page 121, will account for the myth of Jupiter (the
lightning) falling in love with a cow. If by lo we understand the moon,
whose horned appearance would admit of her being designated by the
hieroglyphic of a cow, as shown in. note on page 111, the love of Osiris or
Jupiter as the sun, who supplies the moon with light, may be thus ac
counted for. Or, if by lo, or Isis, we understand the earth, then the love
entertained for her by Jupiter, Osiris, or the Sun, may be readily explained,
for each of these has been considered the fecundating principle of nature.
By the worship of the bull in Egypt, some understand agriculture, and
by the worship of the cow, the soil of Egypt; others suppose, that on
account of the utility of agriculture, and for its promotion, the cow was
made a sacred animal, to prevent its being eaten. But Diodorus states,
that the Giants lived in the days of Isis; and Sophocles introduces lo
(Isis) in her wanderings as coming to Prometheus, who was bound for
stealing fire from heaven, thus carrying us back to the Fall, and the age
subsequent. It is better, then, to consider Isis under the form of a cow,
not so much a type of agriculture, as a corrupt tradition of the worship
first instituted at Eden, when man was forced to live by agriculture, and
the cow as a partial imitation of the cherubim which was set up, contain
ing, as described by Ezekiel, the face of a man, of an eagle, a lion, and
an ox, with the feet of a calf. The Hebrew word cherubim, Exodus
xxv. 18, is rendered ox in Ezekiel i. 10. The wanderings of lo indicate
the spread of agriculture ; her resting in Egypt, the" settling of men for
the purpose of tillage in that fertile country.
The part of the story relating to Argus can only be explained astrono
mically, by regarding the upper hemisphere, or that above the horizon,
as Isis (lo), Argus as heaven, the stars his eyes, and the sun and moon
as the two that watch her, the rest being beneath the earth ; and Mercury
as the horizon, during an eclipse of the sun, killing Argus, and putting
out the light of all his eyes.
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T ncmus Hcrrnonias, proerupta quod undique claudit
-- Silya: vocant Tempe. Per qua Peneus ab imo
Eflusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis,
Dejectuque gravi tenues agitantia fumos
Nubila conducit, summasque aspergine silvas 6
Impluit, et sonitu plus quam vicina fatigat.
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, NOT^E.
1. Jlamomce. An ancient name of Thessaly, so called
from Hocmon, a native of Thebes.
2. Ttmpe. A large and beautiful plain in Thessaly,
lying between Olympus on the north, and Ossa on the
south, and watered by the river Peneus. Tempe is in the
plural number, and is indeclinable. It is used by Ovid,
Theocritus, and other poets, to signify any very beautiful
n \ landscapes.
^ 3. Pindo. A chain of mountains in Greece, which sepajA
rates Thessaly from Epirua.
\ 3 . Vulvitur: is rolled; rolls itself; rolls along. It has
the force of a middle verb in Greek.
4. Dejictuque gram: by its heavy fall. The river falls
over a precipice.
4. Tenuec fumos: light vapors; light mists; minute par
ticles of water tliat appear like smoke.
Then whitening by degrees, as prone H falls,
And from the loud-resounding rocks below
Hushed in n cloud of foam, it Bend* aloft
A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower. THOMSON.
5. ^ fpergine: with its spray.
6. Plus quam vicina: more than the vicinity. The
noise of the waterfall is heard at a great distance.
Smooth to the shelving brink n copious flood
Rolls fair and placid; where, folJected all
In one impetuous torrent, down the steep
It thundering Fhools, ami shakes the cmmlry'rtruml.
THOMSON.
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