THE EARLIEST HEROES:

PRMETHEUS AND IO, EUROPA

Kamilah & Kamy

Prometheus and Io Prometheus gives fire to the humans and goes behind Zeus’s back by

allowing man to keep the best parts of the animals sacrificed to the gods and letting the gods only have the worst parts of the animals

As a punishment, Zeus chains him to rock where everyday Prometheus has his liver torn apart by an eagle

One day a beast that looked like a cow and had the voice of a girl came across Prometheus

She wondered why he was chained to the rock and questioned him if he was there as some form of punishment

It is then that Prometheus recognizes her as the princess she once was, Io, and they begin to tell their stories to each other

Io had captured the heart of Zeus, and to protect her from the rage of Hera, Zeus turned her into this creature

However Hera did not believe this was just any cow and made Zeus hand her over

Hera then gave Io to the hundred eyed Argus who would watch over her

Prometheus and Io Zeus no longer able to watch the miserable Io carry on with her life as a cow, sent

Hermes down to kill Argus After some time all of Argus’s eyes had shut and he was finally completely asleep,

giving Hermes the perfect opportunity to follow through with Zeus’s wishes Io was then free, but soon enough Hera found out about the death of Argus and

sent a gad-fly to drive Io to madness Prometheus tried to help her but there wasn’t much he could do but point her in

the right direction She eventually reached the Nile where Zeus turned her back into her human form

and they had a son, Epaphus, together In the future Prometheus owes his freedom to a hero named Hercules, who turns

out to be a descendent of Io Allusions: Frankenstein because both Victor an Prometheus had good intentions

of creating a new form of life and giving fire to the humans. However they both ended up creating some negative problems. It also is an allusion of a love story gone wrong with the ex-girlfriend doing whatever necessary to make the man’s current girlfriends life as miserable as possible.

Europa – The Goddess of Love

Zeus was shot by one of Cupid’s arrows and as he was shot he fell in love with Europa.

That same morning she has a strange vision of two continents disguised as women trying to posses her.

Once she woke up, she knew better than to go back to sleep, so she beckoned to her girls of the same year to meet her down at the bay.

As they were picking beautiful flowers they were suddenly accompanied by a bull.

Europa This wasn’t just any bull – the bull had been

Zeus; he changed himself into one to cautiously go to her and protect her.

He was a handsome bull. He was welcomed by all the young women. He kneeled down to allow Europa to climb onto hi back.

As she did so, he ran down the shore and into the water carrying her to Crete wear she would be safe from Hera.

Allusion: ???

Higher Level Questions

1. If you were Zeus, would you have also turned Io into a cow to try and save her from the furious Hera? Why or why not?

2. Why do you think Hera chose Argus to keep watch over Io?

3. Would you have also sat right on the bull that looked like no other or would you have been more cautious and just continued picking flowers? Explain your answer.