Io was the dauther of a river-god. Zeus loved her and took her as a wife. Being a very jealous woman, Hera was so angry that she wanted to revenge [1] Io. Zeus then turned Io into a beautiful white little cow to avoid Hera. But Hera saw through the trick, she asked zeus for the cow and let Argus, a one hundred-eyed monster to observe her so that she would not run away.Argus' eyes were ever open and nothing could escape them. In order to save Io from the monster, Zeus sent Hermes to kill him. Having garbed himself as a sheperd, Hermes lulled[2] Argus into sleep with his magic[3] songs and boring stories, and killed him.Then Io, still in the form of a cow, was set free.Not to be outdone[4], Hera again set a gadfly to attack the cow. She had to run from this place to that, and in the end she arrived in Egypt where she was turned back into her natural form. She settled down there and gave birth to many children some of whom became kings for a long time.

爱娥是一个河神的女儿。宙斯爱上了她并娶她为妻。赫拉是一个嫉妒心很重的女人，她非常生气，想要报复爱娥。为了躲避赫拉，宙斯把爱娥变成了一头漂亮的小白牛。但是赫拉看穿了宙斯的计谋，她向宙斯要了这头小牛，让百眼魔鬼阿古斯看管她，以防她逃跑。 阿古斯的眼睛始终是睁着的，没有什么东西可以逃脱他的监视。为了救出爱娥,宙斯派赫尔墨斯去杀掉阿古斯。赫尔墨斯装扮成一个牧羊人来到阿古斯面前，他唱有魔力的歌，讲乏味的故事哄他睡觉，然后杀死了他。爱娥自由了，但她仍然是牛的样子。 赫拉不服输，她让牛虻去叮爱娥，害的她到处躲避。最后，她到了埃及，在那里她又恢复了人形。于是她便安顿下来，生儿育女，她的许多孩子还当了很长时间的国王。

注释：

1. revenge是“报仇”、“报复”的意思，如seek one's revenge on sb(伺机向某人报仇)。有人也许会问，avenge 也是“报仇”的意思，二者是否有区别？回答是肯定的。一般情况下，revenge 表示因个人的怨恨和恶意而报仇，而avenge则是出于正义感对邪恶、恶行、压迫等加以报复。如：she avenged the wrong she had suffered(她为她所受的冤屈报仇)。

2. lull的意思是“哄某人进入...状态”、“哄...入睡”。由此，我们想到另外一个词lullaby(摇篮曲)，我们小的时候常常是在妈妈的摇篮曲伴随下入睡的。而lullaby的词源正是lull，bye是从儿语bye-bye（再见，睡觉吧）而来。

3. magic在这里是一个形容词，它的意思是“有魔法的”、“有魔力的”等。如a magic carpet（魔毯），a magic wand(魔杖)。记得小时候听了《百草园和三味书屋》里的美女蛇后，多想的到一条magic centipede（有魔力的蜈蚣）啊。

4. outdone是outdo 的过去分词，它的意思是“胜过”、“超过”。To be outdone 就是“被...超过”，被别人超过的滋味是不好受的，谁都不原意被别人超过，更何况伟大的女神赫拉呢？ 但她所使用的手段却太卑鄙了。所以我们要通过自己的努力保持领先地位，如：he has outdone all his rivals in skill(他在技巧方面胜过了所有的对手)完全是自身努力的结果。