Argus
- Byname:
- Panoptes (Greek: “All-Seeing”)
Argus, figure in Greek legend described variously as the son of Inachus, Agenor, or Arestor or as an aboriginal hero (autochthon). His byname derives from the hundred eyes in his head or all over his body, as he is often depicted on Athenian red-figure pottery from the late 6th century bc. Argus was appointed by the goddess Hera to watch the cow into which Io (Hera’s priestess) had been transformed, but he was slain by Hermes, who is called Argeiphontes, “Slayer of Argus,” in the Homeric poems. Argus’s eyes were transferred by Hera to the tail of the peacock. His fate is mentioned in a number of Greek tragedies from the 5th century bc—including two by Aeschylus, Suppliants and Prometheus Bound, and Euripides’ Phoenician Women—and the Latin poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses from the 1st century ad.