Juno zet de ogen van Argus in de staart van haar pauw 1655 - 1761

This undated engraving by an anonymous artist depicts Juno placing the eyes of Argus on the tail of her peacock. The story comes from Ovid's *Metamorphoses*, a key text in the visual culture of early modern Europe. Juno, the Roman queen of the gods, had Argus, a giant with a hundred eyes, guard Io, a nymph who Juno's husband Jupiter had turned into a heifer. Mercury, the messenger god, slew Argus, and here we see Juno transferring his eyes to the tail of her favorite bird. Images like this circulated widely, often in books of mythology, and would have been most appreciated by those with a humanist education. But it also raises questions about power, gender, and surveillance. Juno's all-seeing peacock embodies a jealous, controlling, and punitive female power. To fully understand this print, scholars research its publication history and compare it with other versions of the same myth. The meaning of art changes over time and depends on its cultural context.