Juno and the Paycock.

From: Mark Odegard
Message: 360
Date: 1999-11-29

junk Sabine writes:
 
The peacock, Pjotr, is a later addition to Hera, and somehow reminding me again of Queen Victoria ;-). It had been brought to Hellas from India, telling people it had sprung from the blood of Argos (the one with the hundred eyes watching cow-goddess Io, cf. Roscher I,2, 2106)


I'm unfamiliar with this version. Robert Graves, in The Greek Myths, has these to be the transplanted eyes of Argus Panoptes. To steal Io (whom Zeus transformed into a white heifer) from the custody of Hera's chosen guardian, Hermes decapitated hundred-eyed Argus. Graves writes, under "Io" that
 
Hera, having placed Argus's eyes in the tail of a peacock, as a constant reminder of his foul murder, set a gadfly to sting Io and chase her all over the world.


This is an obvious aetiology for the peacock's eyes. The whole myth of Io is a jumble. Essentially, Io is literally cow-eyed Hera. Graves, in his notes to "Io" writes that the myth explains and records how
 

the Moon-priestesses whom the leaders of the invading Hellenes, each calling himself Zeus, violated to the dismay of the local population. Hera, as Zeus's wife, is then made to express jealousy of Io, though Io was another name for 'cow-eyed' Hera.
As for Juno and the Paycock, this is the play by Sean O'Casey. I'm unfamiliar with what mythological allusion he was trying to make, but it does make for a nice subject line for this posting.

The various rapes perpetrated by Zeus record some definitely un-matriarchally-minded Indo-Europeans refusing to become the humble servants of the goddess, and even worse, their refusal, as 'the king', to die at the appointed season; instead, the priestess-goddess herself was apt to be spitted for even suggesting such a thing. At least, this is how it goes according to Graves.

Mark.