Page 9 of Hermes
“Really? Thank you, father. I swear I won’t fail you this time,” I said to appease him.
“Good, because this next task I have in store for you is a precarious one,” he revealed.
“Precarious? How so?” I arched my brow at him.
“It involves you having to kill someone,” he revealed.
“Kill who?” I gulped, not overly enthusiastic about the thought by any means. Yes, I could be cunning, deceptive, and conniving, but a murderer, I was not. It left an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Argus, a guardian of Hera,” Zeus informed me. “You see, Argus is a protector over Io, a rare white heifer.”
A protector over a cow? What was so imperative about needing to kill someone who watched over a heifer?
My father could see the perturbed look on my face and sensed the confusion that stirred within me. “Io is very important to me. I need her freed from Argus’s clutches,” he explained.
“But if he is a guardian of Hera’s, why not just ask her to demand him to stand down and release Io to you?” I thought the solution was rather simple, but even I should know that nothing was ever so uncomplicated when it came to the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus.
“Oh Hermes, you don’t think I would have tried that by now, foolish boy? If only it were that straightforward. You see, Io was once a beautiful princess from Argos. She was actually a priestess who served in a temple devoted to Hera. I fell in love with her. Our affair persisted for a few years until my wife became aware of what we were. Before Hera could use her wrath to punish Io, I transformed her into a white heifer to conceal her. But my wife was not so easily deceived. She knew of Io’s new identity and therefore kidnapped her from me and trapped her in a forest, to be forever watched over by her guardian Argus.”
My father was not lying when he alluded to the situation being beyond convoluted. “So essentially, you want me to kill Argus so that you and Io can be together?” I asked for clarification.
“Precisely. Io is innocent in all of this. I cannot stand the thought of her being burdened with being the collateral punishment from the ongoing strife between my wife and me,” Zeus admitted.
“Very well. I will venture out to find Argus and kill him,” I spoke confidently, although I was feeling anything but that on the inside.
“But be warned, my son. Argus is not just your average guardian. You see, Argus is a giant, possessing one-hundred eyes. You will only be able to kill him when all of his eyes are closed, which is a difficult feat, for he always has at least half of his eyes open at all times, able to see anything and everything,” my father explained.
Great. So, I had to find a way to get this monster to get all of its eyes closed before I could strike to kill it. Easier said than done. But I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I needed to still prove myself to the King of the Gods and all of the other gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus for that matter, to show them that I too am a worthy god.
“And how exactly do I go about and get Argus to close all one-hundred of his eyes?” I inquired.
Zeus shrugged. “If I knew the answer to that, I would have already gone out and killed him myself, or had one of the other gods perform the task for me. But you see, it takes someone who is clever and witty enough to be able to trick Argus into shutting all of its eyes in order to attack it at the right moment.”
“Which is why you seek my expertise…” I filled in the gaps aloud.
“Yes. If anyone can do it, it’s you. Rescue Io from his clutches and you will be rewarded, my son.”
Another adventure to disembark on from Mount Olympus. Only this time, I would make sure I was triumphant. More determined than ever, I flew through the air, my winged sandals flapping against the wind, as I navigated towards the forest guarded by Argus. But I was not my normal self. I wore dirty garbs with soot stains covering my skin. I was playing the role of a shepherd.
What type of mortal was so non-threatening than a shepherd? Surely, Argus would not see past my guise and think me a god out to slaughter him and free Io. Therefore, I thought it would be in my best interest to be depicted as an innocent mortalwho just happened to lose his way and end up in an enchanted forest, protected by none other than Argus himself.
I made sure to descend to the ground at a great distance away from the forest, so that I could hide my golden sandals and put on plain ones to further enhance my performance as a common shepherd. I trekked through the fields on foot until I approached the forest, rubbing my chin vigorously and spinning around, pretending to have lost my way. Hopefully, one of Argus’s one-hundred eyes had caught sight of me, leading him to believe the narrative that I was a clueless shepherd that was misguided.
As I stepped into the forest, I was expecting Argus to jump out and surprise me, to prevent me from even entering it, but this was not the case at all. No one was in sight and nothing blocked me from navigating through the forest with its vast trees full of greenery forming a canopy. Perhaps Argus was no longer here, unbeknownst to Zeus? What if another god had already killed him with no one else knowing? Doubtful, but still not out of the realm of possibilities.
I paused for a moment, deciding to take a break and sit on the stump of a collapsed tree. Maybe I needed to change my focus now. With Argus potentially out of my way, my new mission should be to find Io.
But before I could even rationalize the thought, I felt a heavy breeze gust by me. I knew the sharp pressure from it striking me in the face was unnatural. So, I stood and scanned my surroundings, only to then see a dark figure looming in the distance, making its way closer to me.
As the figure approached, I could see just how colossal it was compared to my smaller stature. The monster had a single brown cloth draped around its mid-region. Its teeth were jagged, easily able to cut through the roughest of animal hides that it likely consumed as prey. But more noticeable than anything else about its physical appearance was the one-hundred eyes that continuously opened and shut atop of its head.
“Halt!” the creature shouted in a deep, raspy tone, which surprised me that it could even speak clearly. “What are you doing in this forest?”
It was now time for me to put on the performance of a lifetime. “Oh? Does this forest belong to you? My apologies. You see, I seemed to have lost my way. I am but a humble shepherd trying to find one of my sheep that seemed to have escaped from the flock. You wouldn’t have happened to see it come through these parts, would you?”
“No. I saw no such sheep come through this forest. Now, you should be on your way. Return to where you came from, lost shepherd.” Argus then turned his back toward me, beginning to walk off.
“Wait!” I shouted. It was a desperate attempt to keep him from fleeing. “Allow me to play you a song. It’s the least I can do for having disturbed you.” I reached within my tunic to retrieve a long wooden syrinx to show him.
