|
He could call for his wife, Juno.
But the truth was, he was a little frightened of his wife, Juno.
He could find a beautiful woman.
But he couldn't let Juno catch him. She was very very jealous.
Jupiter flew down to earth and
looked around for something to do. He spotted two men walking
along a lane. Jupiter cast his voice to make it sound like
somebody else was speaking. He was very good at that.
"Hey stupid," Jupiter
cast his voice loudly, hoping to start a fight.
One man turned to the other
angrily. "What did you say?" And before you could say
Jupiter, the two men were fighting. Jupiter found that very funny.
A glint on the river caught his
eye. It was Io, a lovely river nymph.
"What a lovely young
woman," Jupiter said. He promptly fell in love.
Hoping to hide himself from the
eagle eye of his jealous wife, Jupiter covered the world with some
really thick clouds. But Juno was not stupid. The thick coat of
clouds made her suspicious immediately.
Jupiter looked up. "It's
Juno!" he gulped.
Quickly, Jupiter changed Io into a
cow. When Juno landed, all she found was an innocent looking
Jupiter standing next to a little white cow.
"This little cow appeared out
of nowhere," he told his wife, acting surprised.
Juno wasn't fooled. "What a
beautiful cow," she gushed admiringly. "May I have it as
a present?"
Jupiter had to agree. Juno sent the
cow away under guard.
Jupiter arranged for Io to be
rescued and set free. He sent his son Apollo to sing the guard
asleep. When the guard closed his eyes, Io ran away.
When Juno heard about it, she sent
a gadfly after Io. A gadfly is a fly that bites.
"Moo moo," Io screamed,
when the gadfly found her.
Io swam across a sea, hoping the
gadfly would drown on the trip. No such luck, although Juno did
name the sea after Io. Perhaps you've heard of it - the Ionian
Sea? It's the sea between Greece and Rome. No matter.
Feeling very sorry for herself, a
dispirited Io traveled next to Egypt.
It was then that Juno decided that
Io had suffered enough. First, she made Jupiter promise that he
would never see Io again. Then she changed Io back into human
form, and left her in Egypt. Egypt was a dismal place for a river
nymph. There are no crocodiles in the Tiber as there are in the
Nile.
Jupiter sighed. It was getting to
be a bit boring. What could he do ….
The
Question: This story is
remarkably to an ancient Greek story about Zeus,
Hera, and Little Io - very similar indeed. Why is that? Didn't
the Romans have gods of their own?
The Answer: The
Romans worshiped thousands of gods. As they expanded their empire,
they discovered new gods along the way, gods worshiped by other
cultures. When they ran into a god that sounded interesting, they
adopted it. They gave all their adopted gods Roman names, and
acted as if they were Roman gods all along.
When they discovered the Greek
gods, they adopted them all! Zeus became Jupiter. Hera became
Juno. Apollo was one of the few Greek gods whose name did not
change when the Romans added him to their list of
"Roman" gods. (Io was not a god. She was a water spirit,
and thus got to keep her name.)
Return to Romans Gods & Goddesses
|
