•IO•

Part 3 - Relief

Zeus was heartbroken for Io, his poor beautiful maiden was suffering, all by his doing. So he hatched a plan. He asked his faithful servant, Hermes, who was also a god, to go down to earth and distract Argus so Io could escape, Hermes agreed to this for a price of course. He travelled to where Io was the next afternoon.

'Good day mighty Argus' Hermes greeted the giant, who nodded back.

'Might I play you a song from my lyre and tell you the tales of the titans and heroes?' Hermes suggested, Argus smiled and nodded like a child getting cheery and giddy over dessert.

Hermes plucked the strings of the lyre as he sang Argus the great tales of old, he told him story after story and song after song. The sweet melody sang sweetly to the giant and he eventually dozed off, after Hermes watched all one thousand eyes shut he tip toed over to Io, who was watching curiously and untied the silk rope and ushered her to gallop off.  As soon as she was out of sight, Hermes needed to make sure Argus couldn't tell Hera who made him sleep, for this would put him in trouble and expose Zeus, so he reached to the inside of his robe and pulled out a smooth shiny dagger and sunk it into Argus' throat. The giant didn't even flinch; instead he simply didn't wake up.

Io ran as fast as she could, she didn't look back once, finally the freedom she so craved had blessed her or maybe Hermes did.  Zeus watched her happily gaining her freedom from the clutches of his wife.

Days had passed since Io was freed, Argus was dead and Hera got worried after she couldn't sense him any more, so she hastily made her way to the olive tree where she knew they were. She was greeted with his cold lifeless corpse surrounded in a pool of blood, her knees buckled as grief consumed her, and deeply saddened she blesses him, 'Oh dear Argus, may you reach the heavens and may your eyes adorn tails of my graceful peacocks for all to admire'.

Hera, overcome with grief, slowly walked away from Argus' death place, her grief rapidly turning into anger, the type of anger that could level a city if she so chose. She left mortal earth and paced the marble halls of Olympus, questioning who could have killed poor Argus. She didn't have to spend much time contemplating, she knew his death had to be caused by Zeus, for he was the only other person who knew of the cow's existence. As she approached her balcony and gripped its golden railing, she boiled with revenge for Argus' death, she too then hatched a plan, if Zeus did not want Io to suffer in her grip anymore, she would make her suffer at the hands of the Gadfly. Once birthed, Hera enchanted the unsightly fly and instructed it to do its worst to the cow.

Io was used to the benign buzzing of flies around her, she'd grown accustomed to them and even gave some names as they became loyal to her, as she frolicked and relished her freedom, a new fly, something slightly different buzzed around her. She noticed its larger abdomen with a thicker stinger on its end and the mesh of its eyes glinted with a metallic green almost like a vial of poison. She welcomed the new critter, but this one greeted her with a sting on her nose. Io flinched back as the fly came back around and stung her again, Io shook her face and tried to escape the fly, but it was too quick for her. The gadfly, sent by Hera had found Io. It buzzed around her and landed on her ear, she flapped it loosely to get the fly off but the movement gave it the chance to enter her ear canal and settle inside her head. The fly relentlessly stung her from the inside, the pain was unbearable, the scratching of its legs created a vile vibrating in her neck and its droppings created an odour none of which she'd smelt before. Hera got her revenge.

Io tried everything to get the fly from her head, she flipped, scraped, jumped, bathed and sneezed, but to no avail. Days went by and she had no luck, Io was on her own, with no help. The fly made Io its home. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The incessant buzzing, scratching and smell drove Io insane.

She deliriously wandered so much, unaware of where she was going, that she found herself at the edge of an ocean. She couldn't think straight; she couldn't think at all, she could only see death. She stomped into the warm waters of the Mediterranean and swam continuously. Hoping for the Charybdis to swallow her or for Scylla to drown her, she grunted to draw their attention. No one came.

Io swam for so long and for so far unaware of her strength and resilience that she reached land once more. She found herself in Egypt; she trotted down south along the Nile delta and eventually collapsed by its banks. She pushed herself to the water's edge and looked at herself in its glassy reflection. She'd given up.

She lay and lowed, she lowed so much, praying for someone to take her life and she wouldn't stop until someone did.

Zeus couldn't bear the lowing no more; he endured it for hours and witnessed Io laying there, he was heartbroken once again, he loved Io so he ran to Hera to come clean about his misbehaviour.

'You expect me to forgive you?' she sarcastically batted back to him.

'No, just let the girl go, I know you've done something to her Hera!' Zeus pleaded with her, 'It's not her fault, she's innocent in all of this'.

Hera rolled her eyes and with a flick of her wrist she pulled the Gadfly from Io's ear.

Relief!

Zeus now returned Io back to human form as a reward for her endurance, patience and stoic.

As Io's appearance returned to normal, she sat by the river bank and sobbed with happiness, her torture was over. She vowed never to return to Greece so to avoid the Gods, instead she decided to stay in Egypt. As the months passed she realised that she had been with child all along, giving birth to her only son Epaphus. He, over time grew strong and mighty like his divine father Zeus. He impacted so much good on the people of Egypt that they crowned him as their royal leader. Io was now at peace, so much so that she drew her last breath in an almost romantic and tranquil setting on the banks of the Nile. It was then that Epaphus heard the story of his mother, who encouraged his people to worship Io as a god instead.

The End.

Did you like this short story? I'm striving to make myths, especially those smaller and lesser known stories more palatable and enticing than their previous descriptions from Classic Authors. They deserve to be retold. Well let me know by placing a vote or a comment!

Thanks so much for reading!