Week 3: Storytelling--Shrouded Reflection

It often amazes me how quickly one's life may change course, and how dramatically.  In one instant, I was simply a young girl fetching water from my father's stream, then in the next I was a snowy heifer imprisoned under Argus's watchful eyes.  I am Io, and this is my story.

It all began when my father sent me to the stream along the back of our land for fresh water.  Suddenly a man's booming voice echoed over the fields around me, claiming to be mighty Jupiter.  Already promised to another, regardless of whether my pursuer truly was a god, I sprinted away through the woods, leaving the pail of water spilled across the grass behind me.

Fog began to roll out over the earth around me, obscuring my vision and hampering my flight.  Branches appeared seemingly out of nowhere, ripping my garments and skin.  My foot caught on an unseen root, and I was sent sprawling onto the unyielding forest floor.  It was then that Jupiter caught up with me and defiled me, claiming all the while that he cared deeply for me, his most beautiful lover.

At this point, a numbness began to consume me, a numbness as chilled and enshrouding as Jupiter's rolling fog.  I had shamed myself, my father, my family.  I was no longer pure, could no longer belong to another.  But how could I have prevented the actions of a god?

Wracked with guilt and shame, I did not realize the approach of vengeful Juno until she was nearly upon us.  But Jupiter had noted her coming and with a look of panic gestured at me wildly.  Where before there was numbness, there was now an unnatural tingling sensation, and I looked down at my hands and legs to see them elongating, changing shape.  A light coat of snowy fur coated my body, and my feet and hands quickly shifted into cloven hooves of midnight black.  I fell to all fours, and my back began to bow under the weight of my shifting form.  My nose began to stretch away from my face, ears grew taller, and horns sprouted from my head.

I started to cry out for aid, for mercy, but all that emerged was the desperate lowing of a cow.  Shocked, I tried again, only to hear another mournful low.  Unable to accept what was happening, I stood silent as Juno and Jupiter dueled with words above me.

Before I could fully realize my new plight, Juno was tying a rope around me.  With each pull of her hand, the noose tightened around my neck and another low escaped me.  She dragged me onward mercilessly, giving me no time to catch my bearings.  Then, suddenly, a giant of a man with a hundred eyes loomed over me, his figure shrouding me in shadow.  Juno thrust my lead into his hands and disappeared in a burst of fury.

For weeks and months I would graze on bitter herbs under the light of Apollo, drinking muddied waters to slake my thirst.  Under the blackness of night, I would lie on the cold, punishing dirt, gazing at the stars praying for release.  No sound escaped my throat, for the lowing that would have emerged frightened me almost as much as my imprisonment.  And I could not look into any clear waters for fear of facing the reflection of my new and terrible reality.

Eventually, after encountering and subsequently being driven away from my dear father, Jupiter took mercy on me and sent Mercury to kill my jailer.  Juno found Argus slain, and enraged she drove me through the world more harshly than ever before.  When finally I could travel no further, I stumbled to my knees on the banks of the Nile.  I know not what happened then in the heavens, but suddenly all of my supplications were acknowledged and my body began to take on its original form.  Rough hair left my body, the horns disappeared, my mouth and nose shrank back.  My obsidian hooves vanished, replaced by delicate hands and slender feet.

Slowly I drew myself up onto two feet, looking at the reflection of my pale human figure in the Nile with wonder.  Turning my face skyward and raising my arms to the heaven, I spoke aloud in my own tongue for the first time in months, whispering tentatively to whatever god was listening. . .  Words are powerless to express my gratitude--yet I humbly thank you!





Author's Note.  I decided to retell the story of Io from Io's perspective.  I love looking at stories in the first person perspective, and I thought that in this myth Ovid focuses more on Jupiter and Juno than on the helpless victim of Io.  I wanted to express her plight, her vulnerability, her guilt and imprisonment, and her gratefulness regarding the end of her trials.  So hopefully that all shows through.  In this story, Jupiter sees Io out and about and becomes infatuated with her to the point that he rapes her.  Juno sees all of the mysterious fog Jupiter summons and becomes suspicious.  When Jupiter is about to be caught, he transforms Io into a shining white cow, who Juno asks for as a gift to throw Jupiter off guard.  Jupiter stupidly gives in, and poor Io lives under Juno and Argus's rule for a long while before she gets a semi-happy ever after.  I didn't make any big changes other than the perspective, which of course influences the amount of info available to the character and thus the reader (since Io is not at all omniscient).  Hope you enjoyed the story; ciao!

Image Information.  Photo of girl reflected.  Found on Ria-perspective.blogspot.it.

Bibliography.  "Io" from Ovid's Metamorphoses.  Translated by Tony Kline (2000).  Web Source:  Poetry in Translation.