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.

愛娥是一個(gè)河神的女兒。宙斯愛上了她并娶她為妻。赫拉是一個(gè)嫉妒心很重的女人，她非常生氣，想要報(bào)復(fù)愛娥。為了躲避赫拉，宙斯把愛娥變成了一頭漂亮的小白牛。但是赫拉看穿了宙斯的計(jì)謀，她向宙斯要了這頭小牛，讓百眼魔鬼阿古斯看管她，以防她逃跑。 阿古斯的眼睛始終是睜著的，沒有什么東西可以逃脫他的監(jiān)視。為了救出愛娥,宙斯派赫爾墨斯去殺掉阿古斯。赫爾墨斯裝扮成一個(gè)牧羊人來到阿古斯面前，他唱有魔力的歌，講乏味的故事哄他睡覺，然后殺死了他。愛娥自由了，但她仍然是牛的樣子。 赫拉不服輸，她讓牛虻去叮愛娥，害的她到處躲避。最后，她到了埃及，在那里她又恢復(fù)了人形。于是她便安頓下來，生兒育女，她的許多孩子還當(dāng)了很長時(shí)間的國王。

注釋：

1. revenge是“報(bào)仇”、“報(bào)復(fù)”的意思，如seek one's revenge on sb(伺機(jī)向某人報(bào)仇)。有人也許會(huì)問，avenge 也是“報(bào)仇”的意思，二者是否有區(qū)別？回答是肯定的。一般情況下，revenge 表示因個(gè)人的怨恨和惡意而報(bào)仇，而avenge則是出于正義感對(duì)邪惡、惡行、壓迫等加以報(bào)復(fù)。如：she avenged the wrong she had suffered(她為她所受的冤屈報(bào)仇)。

2. lull的意思是“哄某人進(jìn)入...狀態(tài)”、“哄...入睡”。由此，我們想到另外一個(gè)詞lullaby(搖籃曲)，我們小的時(shí)候常常是在媽媽的搖籃曲伴隨下入睡的。而lullaby的詞源正是lull，bye是從兒語bye-bye（再見，睡覺吧）而來。

3. magic在這里是一個(gè)形容詞，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)。記得小時(shí)候聽了《百草園和三味書屋》里的美女蛇后，多想的到一條magic centipede（有魔力的蜈蚣）啊。

4. outdone是outdo 的過去分詞，它的意思是“勝過”、“超過”。To be outdone 就是“被...超過”，被別人超過的滋味是不好受的，誰都不原意被別人超過，更何況偉大的女神赫拉呢？ 但她所使用的手段卻太卑鄙了。所以我們要通過自己的努力保持領(lǐng)先地位，如：he has outdone all his rivals in skill(他在技巧方面勝過了所有的對(duì)手)完全是自身努力的結(jié)果。