Boopis

"Cow-eyed." An epithet commonly given to Hera in the Homeric poems. It has been said, that the goddess was thus designated in allusion to her having metamorphosed Io into a cow; but this opinion is contradicted by the fact, that other divinities too, such as Euryphaessa1 and Pluto,2 are mentioned with the same epithet; and from this circumstance it must be inferred, that the poets meant to express by it nothing but the sublime and majestic character of those divinities.

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References

Notes

  1. Homer. Hymn to Helios, 2.
  2. Hesiod. Theogony, 355.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.