Mercury with the Head of the Decapitated Argus
Mercury with the Head of the Decapitated Argus
3D
Published 2018-09-26T10:28:29+00:00
This is a relief depicting a myth about Mercury, Argus and Io.
Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave. Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io against Zeus, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. She charged him to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". Hera knew that the heifer was, in reality, Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. The messenger of the Olympian gods, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods.
There are motifs from the painting Queen Tomyris with the head of the Persian King Cyrus by Peter Paul Ruben can be traced on this relief
| Date published | 26/09/2018 |
| Title | Mercury with the Head of the Decapitated Argus |
| Date | circa 17th century |
| Accession | Inv. 532 |
| Medium | Alabaster |
| Credit | From the Art Chamber of The Sculpture Collection, Dresden |
| Artist | Unknown artist |
| Place | Bode Museum |
