ABSTRACT
The Daughters of Proitos is not the only myth of maidens' passage rites in the Argolid. Nor is it the only one in which a maiden turns into a cow. The story of Io demands its place. It originates in that other Bronze Age centre which Argos destroyed in the 470s, Mycenae, whose last contribution to history was to fight against the Persian. Peiren was Io's father in Hesiod. This statement must have been made in the Catalogue of Women and have led on to the story of Io herself. Akousilaos, as often, following Hesiod, goes on himself to Io's story. If Iasos is Io's father, he points us in several directions. In Apollodoros he is the standard father of Io: Inachos and Peiren are mere alternatives. Inachos is the principal river of the Argive plain. It runs within a mile or two of Argos, but crosses the road from Argos to Mycenae.
