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| Anonymous Flemish Painter Landscape with Mercury and Argus ca. 1570 oil on panel Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Hendrik Goltzius Mercury and Argus ca. 1585 engraving Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Alessandro Allori Allegorical Portrait of a Young Man in the guise of Mercury slaying Argus ca. 1575-80 oil on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Abraham Bloemaert Mercury, Argus and Io ca. 1592 oil on canvas Centraal Museum, Utrecht |
from The Metamorphoses
Juno's rival was now in her power, but her fears continued
to haunt her. She still suspected Jove and his treacherous wiles,
until she put Argus, the son of Aréstor, in charge of Io.
Argus' head had a hundred eyes, which rested in relays,
two at a time, while the others kept watch and remained on duty.
Whichever way he was standing, his eyes were always on Io;
even behind his back, she could never escape from his watchful
stare. She could graze in the daytime, but after sundown he'd pen her
inside an enclosure and tie her innocent neck with a halter.
* * *
The king of the gods could no longer endure his beloved Io's
pain and distress. He summoned his son, whom Maia the radiant
Pleiad had borne, and gave him his orders to murder Argus.
Mercury only paused to don his winged sandals, cover
his head, and seize the sleep-giving wand which empowers his hand.
Thus attired, the offspring of Jupiter leapt from his father's citadel
down to the earth; once there he discarded his wide-brimmed hat,
took off his sandals and simply clung to his snake-twined staff,
which he used in herdsman's fashion to drive the goats he had rustled
along his way through the scrubland, playing the while on his reed pipe.
Juno's guard was entranced by the unfamiliar music.
'You there, whoever you are,' said Argus, 'do come over
and sit with me here on this rock. You'll find no richer abundance
of grass for your goats, and you see there's plenty of shade for a herdsman.'
Mercury then sat down and filled the lingering hours
with desultory chat. He attempted to conquer those watchful eyes
with the drone of his panpipes; but Argus fought to resist sleep's soft
seduction. While some of his hundred eyes were allowed to surrender,
others were kept awake. The pipe had been newly invented,
so Argus drowsily asked his companion about its invention.
* * *
That was the story the god of Cyllene was going to tell,
when he saw that his enemy's drowsy eyes had all succumbed
and were shrouded in sleep. At once he stopped talking and stroked the sentry's
drooping lids with his magic wand to make sure he was out.
Then he rapidly struck with his sickle-shaped sword at his nodding victim
just where the head comes close to the neck, and hurled him bleeding
down from the rock to bespatter the cliff in a shower of gore.
Argus was finished. The light that had glittered in all those stars
was extinguished; a hundred eyes were eclipsed in a single darkness.
Juno extracted those eyes and gave them a setting like sparkling
jewels in the feathers displayed on the tail of the peacock, her own bird.
– Ovid (8 AD), translated by David Raeburn (2004)
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| Jean Lemaire Mercury and Argus ca. 1625-40 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Peter Paul Rubens and workshop Mercury about to slay Argus 1636-37 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Argus and Juno 1610 oil on canvas Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Mercury and Argus ca. 1650-55 oil on canvas Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio |
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| Johann Carl Loth Mercury piping to Argus ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Diego Velázquez Mercury and Argus ca. 1659 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Claude Lorrain Mercury and Argus 1662 etching Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Nicolas Poussin Mercury preparing to kill Argus before 1665 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Jan de Bisschop Mercury lulling Argus to sleep in a landscape before 1671 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Jacopo Amigoni Mercury about to slay Argus 1730-32 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Andrea Locatelli Mercury and Argus before 1741 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Theodore Xavery Mercury and Argus 1775 ivory relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Doccia Manufactory, Florence Mercury and Argus ca. 1750 porcelain Getty Museum, Los Angeles |