Io

In Greek mythology, the daughter of Inachus, first king of Argos; loved under the cover of dark clouds by Zeus, who transformed the princess into a white heifer to hide her from his jealous wife Hera.

Aware of the metamorphosis, Hera set the 100-eyed Argus to watch her. When Zeus ordered Hermes to kill the monster, Hera tormented Io with a gadfly which drove the heifer across many lands until she reached the banks of the River Nile in Egypt. Here she recovered her human form and bore Zeus' son Epaphus who became king of Egypt and built Memphis. She was sometimes identified with the principal Egyptian goddess Isis.

The names of the Ionian Sea and Bosphorus, or ‘ox ford’, were said to have derived from her swimming their waters.