Argus Panoptes
Argus Panoptes (or Argos) is a 100-eyed giant in Greek mythology.
Mythology
Argus Panoptes (Ἄργος Πανόπτης), guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor,[1] was a primordial giant whose epithet, "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and was taken up as an epithet by Zeus, Zeus Panoptes. "In a way," Walter Burkert observes, "the power and order of Argos the city are embodied in Argos the neatherd, lord of the herd and lord of the land, whose name itself is the name of the land."[2]
The epithet Panoptes, reflecting his mythic role, set by Hera as a very effective watchman of Io, was described in a fragment of a lost poem Aigimios, attributed to Hesiod:[3]
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And set a watcher upon her, great and strong Argus, who with four eyes looks every way. And the goddess stirred in him unwearying strength: sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.
In the 5th century and later, Argus' wakeful alertness was explained for an increasingly literal culture as his having so many eyes that only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time: there were always eyes still awake. In the 2nd century AD Pausanias noted at Argos, in the temple of Zeus Larissaios, an archaic image of Zeus with a third eye in the center of his forehead, allegedly Priam's Zeus Herkeios purloined from Troy.[4]
Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave.[5] Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion.[6] She charged him to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. The messenger of the Olympian gods, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods.[7]
The sacrifice of Argus liberated Io and allowed her to wander the earth, although tormented by a gadfly sent by Hera.
According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in a peacock's tail.[8][9]
The myth makes the closest connection of Argus, the neatherd, with the bull. In the Library of pseudo-Apollodorus, "Argos killed the bull that ravaged Arcadia, then clothed himself in its skin."[10]
In popular culture
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- In the Harry Potter book and film series, Argus Filch is the name of the excessively-vigilant caretaker at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft. Considering his intricate knowledge of the many secret passages and his obsession with watching students for signs of rule-breaking, his name is likely a reference to Argus Panoptes.
- A devil beast based on Argos, romanticized as Algoth, appears in the anime series The Devil Lady who uses Jun's fear of being watched to torment her. He ends up killing himself upon entering a fun house mirror room, terrified of being watched himself.
- The fifteenth colossus from the video game Shadow of the Colossus is called Argus and nicknamed "The Sentinel" and "Vigilant Guard". The hundreds of eyes carved into the temple that he resides in refers to the omnividence (all-seeing ability) of Argus Panoptes and the watchful colossus himself.
- Argus Panoptes served as the inspiration for one of the Kaijin from Kamen Rider Wizard, the Phantom Argos
- In the novel Luka and the Fire of Life, by Salman Rushdie, Argus Panoptes is one of the five appointed guardians of the 'Fire of Life'.
- Argus Panoptes was featured in Marvel Comics. He was revived by Hera to be in charge of the Panopticon (a computer surveillance system that was set up to help defend New Olympus).
- A song by the alternative band Ween is named "The Argus".
- In the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, Argus works at Camp Half-Blood. He is said to have eyes all over his body and even his tongue. He is usually seen driving demigods into Manhattan.
- Argus (spelled Argos) appears in the 2007 video game God of War: Betrayal. He is the multi-eyed giant pet of the goddess Hera that was sent by the gods to stop main character Kratos' rampage across Greece, but is slain by an unknown assassin in an attempt to frame Kratos for the murder.
Notes
- ↑ Therefore called Arestorides (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca ii.1.3, Apollonius Rhodius i.112, Ovid Metamorphoses i.624). According to Pausanias (ii.16.3), Arestor was the consort of Mycene, the eponymous nymph of nearby Mycenae.
- ↑ Walter Burkert, Homo Necans (1972) 1983:166-67.
- ↑ Hesiodic Aigimios, fragment 294, reproduced in Merkelbach and West 1967 and noted in Burkert 1983:167 note 28.
- ↑ Pausanias, 2.24.3. (noted by Burkert 1983:168 note 28).
- ↑ Homer, Iliad ii.783; Hesiod, Theogony, 295ff; Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca ii.i.2).
- ↑ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, 2.6.
- ↑ Hermes was tried, exonerated, and earned the epithet Argeiphontes, "killer of Argos".
- ↑ Ovid I, 625. The peacock is an Eastern bird, unknown to Greeks before the time of Alexander.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, 2.4.
External links
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
