Io

Io was a woman in Greek mythology transformed into a cow and driven across the world by divine persecution. Her wanderings connect Greece, Egypt and the Near East, and later genealogies make her an ancestor of important royal and heroic lines.

Io’s myth connects Greece with Egypt and with the wider genealogies of heroic tradition. Pursued across the world in bovine form, she eventually reaches Egypt, where Zeus restores her human shape and she gives birth to Epaphus. Later genealogists made her an ancestor of figures including Danaus, Perseus and Heracles, while Greek writers used her wanderings to link distant landscapes to a common mythical past.