1. In those days when Prometheus had just given fire to
men and when he was first bound to the rocky peak on
Caucasus, he had strange visitor.
A distracted fleeing creature came clambering awkwardly
up over the cliffs and crags to where he lay.
2.
It looked like a heifer, but talked like a girl who seemed
mad with misery. The sight of Prometheus stopped her
short. She cried,
This that I see---A form storm-beaten,
Bound to the rock
Did you do wrong?
Is this your punishment?
Heifer means young cow
3. Where am I?
Speak to a wretched wanderer.
Enough—I have been tried enoughMy wandering-long wandering.
Yet I have found nowhere
To leave my misery
I am a girl who speak to you
But horns are on my head.
Wandering means travel without destination
4.
Prometheus recognized her. He knew the story and he
spoke her name.
I know you, girl, Inachus’ daughter, IO
You made the god’s heart hot with love
And hera hates you. She it is
Who drives you on this flight that never ends.
5. She knew him, then, his story,
You – he who succored the whole race of men?
You, that Prometheus, the daring, the enduring?
They talked freely to each other. He told her how Zeus was
the reason why she, once a princess and a happy girl, had
been changed into,
Succored means help something
or somebody
6. A beast, a starving beast,
That frenzied ruins with clumsy leaps and
bounds, Oh, shame …
Zeus’s jealous wife, Hera, was the direct cause of my
misfortunes, but back of them all was Zeus himself. He fell
in love with her, and sent
Ever to my maiden chamber
Starving means dying of hunger
7. Visions of the night
Persuading me with gentle words:
―O happy, happy girl.
Why are you all too long a maid?
The arrow of desire has pierced Zeus
For you he is on fire
With you it is his will to capture love
Always, each night, such dreams possessed me.
Pierce means bore into something
8.
But still greater that zeus love was his fear of hera’s
jealousy. He acted however with very little wisdom for the
father of Gods and Men when he tried to hide IO and
himself .
By wrapping the earth in a cloud so thick and dark that a
sudden night seemed to drive the clear daylight away.
Wrap means cover something up
9.
She caught sight of him he was standing beside a most
lovely white heifer- IO, of course.
Ovid says, shows that the lies lovers tell do not anger the
gods. However , it also shows that they are not useful, for
Hera did not believe a word of it.
10.
she gave her into the charge of Argus, an excellent
arrangement for hera’s purpose, since Argus had a hundred
eyes. Before such a watchman, who could sleep with some
of the eyes and keep some on the guard with the rest.
Zeus seemed helpless. He watched IO’s misery, turned into
beast, driven from her home
Seem means appear to something
11.
Zeus went to his son Hermes, the messenger of the
gods, and told him he must find a way to kill Argus.
Approached Argus like a country fellow , playing very
sweetly upon a pipe of reeds. Argus pleased at the sound
and called the musician to come nearer.
Reeds means tall water plant
12.
―You might as well sit by me on this rock, ―he said, ―you
see it’s shady – just right for shepherds‖.
Nothing could have been better for hermes plan, and yet
nothing happened. He played then he talk on and on, as
drowsily and monotonously as he could.
Drowsily means be half asleep
13.
At last however, one story was successful – about the
god Pan, how he loved a nymph named syrinx who fled
from him and just as he was about to seize her was
turned into a tuft by her sister nymphs.
Pan said, ―still you shall be mine,‖ and he made from
what she become.
Tuft means bunch of fibers and grass
14. A shepherd’s pipe
Of reeds with beeswax joined
The little story does not seem especially tiresome, as
such stories go, but Argus found it so. All of his eyes went
to sleep Hermes killed him at once, of course, but hera
took his eyes and set them in the tail of peacock his
favorite bird.
Tiresome means annoying or causing fatigue
15.
It seemed IO was free but no , Hera at once turned on
her again. She sent a gad – fly to plague her, which stung
her to madness. IO told Prometheus,
He drives me all along the long sea strand
I may not stop for food or drink
He will not let me sleep.
Plague means appearance of
something in large numbers
16.
To be sure, the part of the sea she first ran along in her
frenzy would called Ionian and the Bosphorus, which
means the ford of the cow.
But her real consolation must be that at long last she
would reach Nile, where Zeus would restore her to
human form.
Consolation means source of comfort
17.
She would bear a son named Epaphus, and live for ever
after happy and honored. And,
Know this, that from your race will spring
One glorious with bow, bold- hearted,
And he shall set me free
Io’s descendant would be Hercules, greatest of heroes
Glorious means Extremely lovely
18. EUROPA
This story, so like the renaissance idea of the
classical – fantastic, delicately decorated, bright –
colored is taken entirely from a poem of the thirdcentury Alexandrian poet Moschus, by far the best
account of it.
Delicately means finely
19.
Europa the daughter of king of Sidon
The story does not say what hera was about that
time, but it is clear that she was off guard and her
husband free to do so as he pleased.
Up in heaven one spring moment as he idly watched the
earth, Zeus suddenly saw a charming spectacle.
Spring means relating to or growing
of something
20.
Europa had waked early, troubled by dream not by god
who loved her but of two continents who each in shape of
a woman tried to possess her.
Asia saying that she had given her birth and therefore
owned her, and other yet nameless, declaring that Zeus
would give the maiden to her.
Maiden means young unmarried woman
21.
Europa decided not to sleep again and summoned her
companions, girls born in the same year as herself and
all noble birth, to go out with her to lovely blooming
meadows near the sea.
Europa shone out among them as the goddess of love
outshines the sister Graces
Meadows means grassy field
22.
As Zeus in heaven watched the pretty scene, she who
alone can conquer Zeus – along with her son, the
mischievous boy cupid – shot one of her shafts into his
hearts and instantly fell madly in love with Europa
Before appearing to Europa he Changed into a bull.
Shaft means long handle
23.
One beautiful bull, bright chestnut in color, with silver
circle his brow and horns like crescent moon.
For surely he will bear us on his back,
He is so mild and dear and gentle to behold.
He is not like a bull, but like a good, true man
Except he cannot speak
24.
As He went the waves grew smooth before him and a
whole procession rose up from deep and accompanied
him – the strange gods, Nereids riding upon dolphins and
tritons blowing horns and the mighty master of sea.
No bull could this be, certainly God
Nereids means see nymp
25.
Europa spoke pleadingly to zeus, begging him to pity her
and not leave her in some strange place.
Zeus answered and showed her what he really was. He
was Zeus, greatest of Gods and all he was doing is to
love her.
Pleading means big earnestly
26.
He was taking her to crete, his own island .
Glorious sons whose sceptres shall hold sway
Over all men on earth
Everything happened, of course as Zeus said.
Her sons were famous men not only in this world but in
next
27.
Minos and Rhadamanthus were rewarded for their justice
upon the earth by being made the judges of dead.
