Argus
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Argus. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in Greek legend, a giant having a hundred eyes. Hera noticed one day that it had grown suddenly dark. She at once suspected that Zeus, her husband, was trying to conceal something from her view. She, therefore, blew away the cloud and found Zeus with a beautiful white heifer standing beside him. Hera was right in her suspicions. Zeus had been making love to Io, daughter of Inachus, the river god, and on his wife's approach had changed Io into a heifer. The wise Hera asked Zeus to give the heifer to her, and he could not well refuse. Lest Io be returned to mortal shape, Hera set the hundred-eyed Argus to watch her. For a time all went well, for Argus could sleep with some of his eyes open, and so never lost sight of his charge. But Io was unhappy. Zeus pitied her and sent Mercury to her aid. Mercury sat beside the giant, told long stories, and played the most soothing melodies upon his Pandean pipes. At last the hundred eyes were closed. With one stroke, Mercury cut off the giant's head. Hera took the hundred bright eyes and with them ornamented the tail of her peacock, where they may be seen this day. According to the theory that all myths are symbolical, Io of this legend has been interpreted to represent the moon, and the eyes of Argus are the stars, keeping ceaseless watch over her. The name Argus is often used to designate an observant or keen-sighted person. It is also a favorite name for a newspaper, implying that the editor has ever an eye open to the public good. See Mythology ; Io; HERA.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A son of Arestor, whence he is sometimes called Arestorides. He had a hundred eyes, of which only two were asleep at one time. Juno set him to watch Io, whom Jupiter had changed into a heifer, but Mercury, by order of Jupiter, slew him, by lulling all his eyes to sleep with the notes of the lyre. Juno put the eyes of Argus in the tail of the peacock, a bird sacred to her.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The story as Aiton's told it in 1910 and as 1000 Classical Characters told it in 1900 is still the story: Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed watchman set over Io, lulled asleep by Hermes and killed, his eyes transferred to the peacock's tail. What has dated is the one interpretive flourish — Aiton's report of "the theory that all myths are symbolical," with Io as the moon and the eyes of Argus as the watching stars. That nature-and-sky school of myth reading, associated above all with Max Müller, was already under attack in 1910 and has been abandoned by classicists since; the tale is now read through cult, ritual and Argive local legend rather than as coded astronomy. The name has kept its life, though: Aiton's noted it as "a favorite name for a newspaper," and Melbourne's Argus ran until 1957, while the label has since migrated to camera arrays and wide-area surveillance systems.
Written for this edition, 2026.