Hermes kills the 100-eyed Argos by The Argos Painter 5th C. BCE

April 19, 2022

Hermes kills the 100-eyed Argos by The Argos Painter 5th C. BCE

"But now heaven's master [Zeus] could no more endure Phoronis' [Io's] distress, and summoned his son [Hermes], whom the bright shining Pleias [Pleiad Maia] bore, and charged him to accomplish Argus' death. Promptly he fastened on his ankle-wings, grasped in his fist the wand that charms to sleep, put on his magic cap, and thus arrayed Jove's [Zeus'] son [Hermes] sprang from his father's citadel [Mount Olympos] down to earth. There he removed his cap, laid by his wings; only his wand he kept. A herdsman now, he drove a flock of goats through the green byways, gathered as he went, and played his pipes of reed. The strange sweet skill charmed Juno's [Hera's] guardian. ‘My friend,’ he called, ‘whoever you are, well might you sit with me here on this rock, and see how cool the shade extends congenial for a shepherd's seat.’

So Atlantiades [Hermes] joined him, and with many a tale he stayed the passing hours and on his reeds played soft refrains to lull the watching eyes. But Argus fought to keep at bay the charms of slumber and, though many of his eyes were closed in sleep, still many kept their guard. He asked too by what means this new design (for new it was), the pipe of reeds, was found. Then the God told this story [of Pan and his pursuit of the Nymphe Syrinx] . . .

The tale remained untold; for Cyllenius [Hermes] saw all Argus' eyelids closed and every eye vanquished in sleep. He stopped and with his wand, his magic wand, soothed the tired resting eyes and sealed their slumber; quick then with his sword he struck off the nodding head and from the rock threw it all bloody, spattering the cliff with gore. Argus lay dead; so many eyes, so bright quenched, and all hundred shrouded in one night. Saturnia [Hera] retrieved those eyes to set in place among the feathers of her bird [the peacock] and filled his tail with starry jewels."

-Ovid, Metamorphoses

Hermes kills the 100-eyed Argos by The Argos Painter 5th C. BCE.

Drawing of an image from a 5th century BCE Athenian red figure vase depicting Hermes slaying the giant Argus Panoptes. Note the eyes covering Argus' body. "Ausführliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie", vol. 2.1, 1890, col. 279-280. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, 1890.

Side B: Two youths and a man in cloaks, shod. The one on the left is holding a rabbit, the one in the middle a long staff, the bearded man is leaning on a gnarled stick. A diptych above the hare. Attributed to the Argos Painter.

Side A: Slaying Argos. Bearded Hermes grabs Argos, who has fallen on his left knee and is covered with numerous eyes, by the beard with his left hand and draws his sword against him with his right. Behind the cow mistakenly drawn as a bull. On the right Zeus is seated on a folding chair with animal claw feet, holding a scepter in his left hand.