Argus

At least four eyes watched from the body of the giant herdsman Argus, called Panoptes, the “All-Seeing One”. Accounts give him as many as a thousand eyes. Apollodorus says they covered his entire body. Ovid gives him one hundred eyes, with only two closed at any time. His parentage is uncertain. Apollodorus lists four possible human fathers. Aeschylus says that he was born directly from the earth.

Argus belongs chiefly to the myths of Io and Hera. Hera placed Io, whom Zeus had changed into a heifer, under his guard. In one account, Argus fastened her to an olive tree in Hera’s grove. Another places the tree at Nemea, or at Mycenae. His constant watch made him a useful guardian for Hera. Hermes later put all his eyes to sleep and killed him, allowing Io to be released. Hera then placed Argus’s eyes in the tail of a peacock as a reminder of his service.