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Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My

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Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb. Today is Saturday, so we have

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Speaker 1: a rerun for you. This is going to be The

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Speaker 1: Burning Mountains of Io Part one. This was a three

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Speaker 1: part series that we did getting into another one of

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Speaker 1: the fabulous Jovian moons. This originally published two six, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. Let's jump right.

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Speaker 2: In Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind?

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Speaker 1: My name is Robert.

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Speaker 3: Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. And today on Stuff

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Speaker 3: to Blow Your Mind, we're going to begin a series

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Speaker 3: on Jupiter's moon Io. Now. Years ago, we did a

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Speaker 3: whole series of episodes on the moons of Jupiter as

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Speaker 3: a whole, focusing mainly on the four Galilean moons. We'll

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Speaker 3: talk more about that in a bit. But recently I

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Speaker 3: decided I wanted to come back and do a deeper

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Speaker 3: revisit on Io. In particular iobing Jupiter's innermost moon. And

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Speaker 3: this was in part because I learned some new interesting

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Speaker 3: things about it. But what really triggered this, this new

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Speaker 3: rabbit trail of research, was that one night I don't know.

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Speaker 3: Sometime in the past week, I got obsessed with new

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Speaker 3: imagery generated by the NASA Juno mission in late twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty three and twenty twenty four. And so, Rob, if

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Speaker 3: it's all right with you, I'd like to start off

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Speaker 3: with us looking at one of these images in particular,

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Speaker 3: and folks at home, we will describe it for you.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's do it.

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Speaker 3: So this is a very crisp color image of Io's

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Speaker 3: northern polar region taken by the Juno spacecraft on December thirtieth,

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, during Juno's fifty seventh close flyby of

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Speaker 3: the Moon. The image was released NASA JPL based on

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Speaker 3: data taken by the Juno spacecraft, with some additional image

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Speaker 3: processing by somebody named Gerald Eichstadt. And I found this

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Speaker 3: picture so weird and thrilling to the imagination. For those

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Speaker 3: who can't look it up, if you can look it up,

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Speaker 3: i'd recommend checking it out again. Keywords are probably io

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Speaker 3: Northern Polar Region, December twenty twenty three. I'm sure that

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Speaker 3: I'll pull it up. But for those who can't look

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Speaker 3: it up, what we're seeing here is half of the

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Speaker 3: Moon as an illuminated hemisphere fading into darkness at the meridian.

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Speaker 3: Now there's a lot we could say about the color

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Speaker 3: of io, and we'll come back to that actually in

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Speaker 3: a few minutes. But in this photo we see wide

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Speaker 3: empty planes of a faded rose color, a kind of pale,

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Speaker 3: rusty pink, dotted by gaping, sunken craters and mountains that

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Speaker 3: rise up into space with alarming sharpness. In some cases,

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Speaker 3: they're rising up like thorns, casting these long shadows on

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Speaker 3: their night side slopes. And the craters are often darker

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Speaker 3: than the plains around them, as if containing silent, cold

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Speaker 3: seas of water. That's what I saw when I first

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Speaker 3: looked at this, But of course we know it's not

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Speaker 3: going to be water in those craters. What is in

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Speaker 3: those craters we'll get to that. Then. In some spots

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Speaker 3: we see surface features that look almost like a biological

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Speaker 3: growth or infection, a kind of mass of yellow orange slime, mold,

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Speaker 3: shaped just like pure chaos, just reaching its fingers out

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Speaker 3: across the moon looking for something. And then surrounding these

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Speaker 3: colonies of mold and around the sharp mountains, there are

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Speaker 3: pale gray flats that look like borders marked in ash

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Speaker 3: I just love this photo. It makes me want to

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Speaker 3: personally explore space. It's bizarre, lovely, frightening and see with drama.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely this image. It looks like perhaps the pinkish

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Speaker 1: disease scalp of a zombie.

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Speaker 3: It.

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Speaker 1: I also thought, well that this looks exactly like the

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Speaker 1: sort of world that would be your destination in a

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Speaker 1: Doom video game. Oh you know, it just looks like

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Speaker 1: a hellish planet where you're probably going to have to

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Speaker 1: blast demonoids.

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Speaker 3: I very much see the zombie comparison, especially like a

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Speaker 3: close up on zombie skin, because when you zoom in,

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Speaker 3: especially on these mountains, I see something that looks like

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Speaker 3: the texture of those those liquid latex makeup effects where

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Speaker 3: there's like a scab or a scar on a zombie.

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Speaker 3: That's gonna, you know, if it's a full chew movie,

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Speaker 3: it's gonna peel off. And sorry to get gross, but

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Speaker 3: that is what it looks like. It looks infected. It

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Speaker 3: looks infected in more ways than one. But so anyway,

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Speaker 3: this photo and some others got my brain racing about IO.

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Speaker 3: I started reading some things about it, and I realized

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Speaker 3: that there's a lot of interesting stuff about this moon

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Speaker 3: that we did not get into in our larger series

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Speaker 3: on the Galilean moons years ago, so I wanted to

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Speaker 3: come back and go deep on this moon. That's why

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Speaker 3: we're here today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was looking back at our notes on the

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Speaker 1: Jovian Moons series and I found that, Yeah, we didn't

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Speaker 1: even really get into the mythology of Io at all,

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Speaker 1: like where this name comes from, and all of that

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Speaker 1: is quite fascinating as well, So that's going to be

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Speaker 1: fun to explore as we proceed here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, knowing the mythology definitely does enliven and kind of

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Speaker 3: throw interesting shadows over the geology and all of the

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Speaker 3: physical facts. So I figure a good place to start

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Speaker 3: is to just do a brief kind of refresher course

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Speaker 3: on the moon. So Io is the innermost of the

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Speaker 3: what are known as Jupiter's Galileian moons. These are the

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Speaker 3: four large moons that were discovered by the Italian astronomer

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Speaker 3: and scientific pioneer Galileo Galilei in January sixteen ten using

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Speaker 3: a refracting telescope with twenty times magnification power. These four

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Speaker 3: moons are from innermost to outermost, so you're starting at

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Speaker 3: the planet. Going out, you get Io then you get Europa,

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Speaker 3: than Ganymede, than Callisto. Now these are not Jupiter's only moons.

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Speaker 3: Jupiter actually has ninety five total moons according to the

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Speaker 3: International Astronomical Union, And that's not even everything orbiting the planet.

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Speaker 3: That's just the recognized moons. It's not including a bunch

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Speaker 3: of small orbiters reaching down to the scale of human furniture.

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Speaker 3: We've talked on the show before about how the observation

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Speaker 3: of the Galilean moons was not just an important thing

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Speaker 3: in the history of astronomy, not just like, oh, we

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Speaker 3: learned about some new things out in the sky, out

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Speaker 3: in the Solar System, but it was an important moment

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Speaker 3: in the history of science because it was one of

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Speaker 3: many pieces of evidence that Galileo marshaled against the geocentric

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Speaker 3: model of the cosmos. Because, to simplify the argument, if

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Speaker 3: it can be shown that objects orbit another planet like Jupiter,

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Speaker 3: why then should we assume that everything in the universe

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Speaker 3: orbits the Earth. Maybe instead, the Earth and the planets

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Speaker 3: all orbit the Sun, and moons orbit the planets, and

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Speaker 3: orbital pathways are a result of some deeper general principle

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Speaker 3: other than everything goes around the Earth. Now, technically. When

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Speaker 3: Galileo first spied the moons of Jupiter through his telescope,

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Speaker 3: at the very beginning, he thought that they were fixed stars.

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Speaker 3: He thought he was looking at stars beyond Jupiter and

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Speaker 3: marked their place. But then he looked at Jupiter again

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Speaker 3: later and the stars were in a different arrangement, so

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Speaker 3: he realized, like, oh, those are not stars, those are

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Speaker 3: something else in the foreground. They're going around the planet.

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Speaker 3: And when he first saw them, he thought he saw three,

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Speaker 3: not four, because he was not able to distinguish Io

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Speaker 3: and Europa. Europa being the second innermost of the large moons,

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Speaker 3: he was not able to distinguish them as separate points

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Speaker 3: of light. It was only in later observations he realized

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Speaker 3: that there were four of them. Now, in terms of

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Speaker 3: mass and volume, Io is the third largest of Jupiter's moons,

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Speaker 3: after Ganymede and Callisto, and it is just slightly larger

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Speaker 3: in diameter than Earth's Moon. As the nearest of the

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Speaker 3: Galilean moons to Jupiter, its average orbital distance from the

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Speaker 3: planet is four hundred and twenty two thousand kilometers or

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Speaker 3: two hundred and sixty two thousand miles. Now, the fact

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Speaker 3: that you might know. Which really sets Io apart and

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Speaker 3: is probably going to be one of our main focuses

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Speaker 3: in this series, is that Io is the most volcanically

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Speaker 3: active object in our Solar system, with hundreds of active

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Speaker 3: volcanoes at any given time. I think there are more

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Speaker 3: than more than one hundred and fifty active volcanoes that

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Speaker 3: have been directly observed, and scientists have estimated based on

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Speaker 3: what we have observed, that there are probably like four

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Speaker 3: hundred or so in total on the surface. Now. Just

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Speaker 3: earlier today, I was actually reading the story of how

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Speaker 3: the existence of those volcanoes on Io was first confirmed,

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Speaker 3: and this actually brings us back to the question of

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Speaker 3: the color the color of the surface of the Moon,

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Speaker 3: which I brought up earlier, and where I was reading

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Speaker 3: about this was in Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, first published

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Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty, sort of as a companion to the

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Speaker 3: documentary series he did. Sagan was writing about Io in

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Speaker 3: that saying that the following was his favorite of what

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Speaker 3: he called the traveler's tales that were returned by the

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Speaker 3: voyager probe.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to do the voice?

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Speaker 3: I appreciate you putting me on the spot, but no,

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Speaker 3: I can't do the voice.

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Speaker 1: No, anytime I read Segan, though, I hear it in

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Speaker 1: his voice.

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Speaker 3: Oh god, I know exactly what. Yeah, I hear it

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Speaker 3: the voice too. Yeah, but I can't. Okay, So here

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Speaker 3: it is in my voice, his words, my voice, Sagan

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Speaker 3: writes quote before Voyager, we were aware of something strange

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Speaker 3: about Io. We could resolve few features on its surface,

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Speaker 3: but we knew it was red, extremely red, redder than Mars,

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Speaker 3: perhaps the reddest object in the Solar System. Over a

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Speaker 3: period of years, something seemed to be changing on it

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Speaker 3: in infrared light and perhaps in its radar reflection properties.

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Speaker 3: We also know that partially surrounding Jupiter in the orbital

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Speaker 3: position of Io was a great doughnut shaped tube of

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Speaker 3: atoms sulfur and sodium and potassium material somehow lost from Io.

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Speaker 3: Oh wow, what a mystery. Okay, so you know, we've

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Speaker 3: never gotten close enough to see what's happening on the surface,

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Speaker 3: but for some reason, it looks super red, redder than

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Speaker 3: anything else we can see around, and it's leaving this

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Speaker 3: trail of atoms in space, like it's just spitting out

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Speaker 3: atoms into orbit around Jupiter. And then the mystery only

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Speaker 3: gets weirder. Once the voyager probe actually approaches the Moon

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Speaker 3: and sends back images in nineteen seventy nine, what they

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Speaker 3: see is very strange. First of all, the surface is

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Speaker 3: multi colored, as we brought up earlier. If you see

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Speaker 3: what they call true color photos of IO, they are

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Speaker 3: often overwhelmingly yellow, like a I don't know, a canary

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Speaker 3: or a banana kind of yellow, except I don't know,

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Speaker 3: maybe a little paler and more sickly, some kind of

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Speaker 3: vomitous duckling yellow, with these blotches of red, pink, gray,

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Speaker 3: and green. I feel like this has too normative of

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Speaker 3: a connotation, but it really does always kind of remind

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Speaker 3: me of sickness in some way. Not trying to say

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Speaker 3: IO is a bad play. So one of the happier

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Speaker 3: comparisons that astronomers sometimes make about the different coloration patterns

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Speaker 3: is they call it a pizza planet. They're like, like

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Speaker 3: cheese and pepperonis and olives and all that.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's a way to make it attractive, I guess.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it does look like some sort of a

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Speaker 1: strange like nergal world.

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Speaker 3: So yeah. Yeah. Also, scientists looking at the images of

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Speaker 3: iosurface realized it was missing something impact craters due to

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Speaker 3: its position near the asteroid belt. Sagan writes that this

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Speaker 3: object really would have to have undergone repeated impacts from space.

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Speaker 3: It should be hammered by asteroids by you know, things

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Speaker 3: coming down on it and leaving pocks in its surface

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Speaker 3: that we would be able to see, you know, just

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Speaker 3: like look at the Moon. It should maybe look something

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Speaker 3: like that. But instead its surface showed little to no

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Speaker 3: sign of impacts, as if something was rapidly erasing the

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Speaker 3: evidence of collisions. Now, whatever was doing that erasing could

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Speaker 3: not be atmospheric in nature, because Io has almost no atmosphere.

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Speaker 3: It does have an atmosphere, but it's incredibly thin, made

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Speaker 3: primarily of sulfur dioxide. If those surface features are being erased,

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Speaker 3: they couldn't be erased by erosion of running water because

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Speaker 3: the conditions on the surface of Io would not permit

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Speaker 3: liquid water. So it had been theorized by some astrophysicists.

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Speaker 3: Sagan names an astrophysicist named Stanton Peel that Io might

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Speaker 3: have erupting volcanoes due to tidal heating of its interior.

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Speaker 3: So this is a frictional heating of the inside of

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Speaker 3: the planet caused by gravitational forces. We'll explain more about

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Speaker 3: this as we go on in the series. But that

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Speaker 3: could lead to volcanic eruptions, which could do the job

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Speaker 3: of repaving the surface if these volcanoes existed. But up

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Speaker 3: until this point in nineteen seventy nine, there was no

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Speaker 3: way to know if any of that was true. It

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Speaker 3: was just an idea. That's one thing that could be

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Speaker 3: going on here. Then Sagan tells of the discovery. He writes,

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Speaker 3: quote Linda Morabito, a member of the Voyage navigation team

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Speaker 3: responsible for keeping Voyager precisely on its trajectory, was routinely

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Speaker 3: ordering a computer to enhance an image of the edge

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Speaker 3: of Io to bring out the stars behind it. To

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Speaker 3: her astonishment, she saw a bright plume standing off in

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Speaker 3: the darkness from the satellite's surface, and soon determined that

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Speaker 3: the plume was in exactly the position of one of

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Speaker 3: the suspected volcanoes. Voyager had discovered the first active volcano

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Speaker 3: beyond the Earth. We now know of nine large volcanoes

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Speaker 3: spewing out gas and debris. Remember this was in nineteen

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Speaker 3: eighty when this book was written. Nine large volcanoes spewing

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Speaker 3: out gas and debris and hundreds, perhaps thousands of extinct

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Speaker 3: volcanoes on Io. The debris rolling and flowing down the

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Speaker 3: sides of the volcanic mountains, arching in great jets over

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Speaker 3: the polychrome landscape is more than enough to cover the

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Speaker 3: impact craters. We are looking at a fresh planetary landscape,

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Speaker 3: a surface newly hatched. How Galileo and Huygens would have marveled. Now.

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Speaker 3: I love that story for multiple reasons, one of which

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Speaker 3: is the idea that the plume from the volcano was

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Speaker 3: spotted not by somebody who was intentionally hunting for volcanoes,

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Speaker 3: but in the process of trying to better resolve navigation

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Speaker 3: navigationally relevant data. But I also love how it paints

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Speaker 3: this picture of Io as a place of a freshness

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Speaker 3: of change. Rob. I think we've talked about this on

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Speaker 3: the show before that often when we think of anything

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Speaker 3: beyond Earth, things in space, we tend to think of

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Speaker 3: a kind of inert, changeless, frozen or dead landscape, places

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Speaker 3: where nothing all that interesting ever really happens. Like what

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Speaker 3: is interesting about the places beyond Earth is kind of

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Speaker 3: a I don't know, features of permanent interest, just the

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Speaker 3: way things are and have all been and will always

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Speaker 3: be Obviously, we know that's not true. And if you

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Speaker 3: like fast forward the tape of geologic time cosmic time,

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Speaker 3: things change a lot. But just thinking about other planets

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Speaker 3: and moons seems like not a lot is happening there,

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Speaker 3: and that is absolutely not the case on the surface

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Speaker 3: of Io. You know he's talking. Sagan here is talking

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Speaker 3: about Io as a place where the surface changes on

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Speaker 3: a timescale of months.

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Speaker 1: It is a dynamic world.

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Speaker 3: And so this leads to another thing he gets into

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Speaker 3: about the chemistry of Io and its volcanic activity, and

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Speaker 3: how this actually relates to the strange patterns of what

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Speaker 3: he called the polychrome surface, the different coloration patterns we

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Speaker 3: see on the surface. Sagan writes that this is actually

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Speaker 3: what we would expect to see from the release of

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Speaker 3: molten's sulfur and the interactions of sulfur compounds from Io's

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Speaker 3: volcanoes and on the surface of the moon. So you

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Speaker 3: get like these, you know, black coloration at the hottest

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Speaker 3: places where the sulfur is just coming out, and maybe

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Speaker 3: near the top of the volcano or the mouth of

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Speaker 3: the volcano, and then nearby where there would be flows

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Speaker 3: of what's coming out of the volcanoes. You get something

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Speaker 3: more like red and orange, and then beyond that you

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Speaker 3: get these big empty planes that are just kind of

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Speaker 3: like yellow, yellowish sulfur. Now, on the subject of what

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Speaker 3: is coming out of the mouth of the volcanoes or

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Speaker 3: what might be forming sort of lakes or rivers of

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Speaker 3: flows beyond beyond a volcano on Io, it's worth noting

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Speaker 3: that materials ejected from volcanoes tend to be very hot.

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Speaker 3: That's true, whether we're talking about Earth or Io. They

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Speaker 3: can form these searing lava flows. But a crazy fact

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Speaker 3: that I came across is that apparently lava flows on

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Speaker 3: Io are even hotter than lava flows on Earth. You know,

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Speaker 3: I might have just assumed that lava lava is going

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Speaker 3: to be roughly the same temperature wherever it is. You know,

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Speaker 3: once it sort of reaches the surface, it's you know,

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Speaker 3: it's probably cooling off. I don't know, I don't know

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Speaker 3: why I would have thought that, but that's clearly wrong.

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Speaker 3: So I was reading about this in an August first,

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Speaker 3: two thousand and one press release from NASA JPL that

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Speaker 3: included an interview with a JPL volcanologist named doctor Rosalie Lopez,

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Speaker 3: and she says a number of really interesting things in

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Speaker 3: this little interview. One of them comes back to that

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Speaker 3: sort of designation that people have of Io as the

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Speaker 3: most volcanic body in the Solar System. She stresses that

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Speaker 3: this is not because Io has the most volcanoes, as in,

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Speaker 3: like you count up all the volcanoes and it has

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Speaker 3: the most. Because I actually checked this, Earth has more

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Speaker 3: volcanoes total, Earth has more than Io does, but Earth

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Speaker 3: is also larger. Of course, the reason that scientists call

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Speaker 3: Io the most volcanic body in the Solar System is

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Speaker 3: that its volcanoes put out the most total heat. So

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Speaker 3: it's the most volcanic because it's a question of total

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Speaker 3: energy released. Io is only about one third the size

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Speaker 3: of Earth, but it puts out like double the heat

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Speaker 3: of Earth from its volcanoes. And Lopez notes that one

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Speaker 3: single volcano on Io, known as Loki, is more powerful

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Speaker 3: than every volcano on Earth put together. Now, another interesting

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Speaker 3: part in this exchange is that the interviewer asks Lopez

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Speaker 3: whether the volcanoes on Io would be similar to volcanoes

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Speaker 3: on Earth. How would they be similar, how would they

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Speaker 3: be different? And Lopez says, quote, the types of eruptions

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Speaker 3: we've observed on Io are similar to types of eruptions

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Speaker 3: on Earth lava flows, calderas, fire fountains like in Hawaii,

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Speaker 3: but there are some very different aspects. One is that

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Speaker 3: lava on Io is much hotter than any lava that

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Speaker 3: flows on Earth today. Billions of years ago, Earth had

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Speaker 3: lava that hot. Another different is that the calderas the

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Speaker 3: volcanic craters on Io are much larger than on Earth.

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Speaker 3: Lava flows are much larger too, And then she cites

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Speaker 3: a volcano on Io named Amirani that has a lava

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Speaker 3: flow going three hundred kilometers long or about one hundred

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Speaker 3: and ninety miles. She of course notes that that's longer than

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Speaker 3: any known lava flow on Earth, but I looked up

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Speaker 3: something to try to find a comparison. Three hundred kilometers

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Speaker 3: is roughly the distance from New York to Providence, Rhode Island,

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Speaker 3: So just imagine an active lava flow that long. And

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Speaker 3: then finally, in this answer, she notes that io eruptions

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Speaker 3: on Io produce like one hundred times as much molten

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Speaker 3: lava per year as eruptions on Earth, and that's counting

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Speaker 3: up all of the erupting volcanoes on Earth, even the

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Speaker 3: ones under the sea. So that's all amazing. I'm especially

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Speaker 3: fascinated by the idea that Earth used to have hotter lava,

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Speaker 3: Like we're kind of in decline. Our planet's just like

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Speaker 3: we can't put out like we used to. But if

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Speaker 3: you take all that together, think about like the massive

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Speaker 3: number of erupting volcanoes on Io, how much heat they

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Speaker 3: put out, and just like what a in some ways

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Speaker 3: boiling world this is. That might paint a picture of

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Speaker 3: a hot house, a sort of planetary hell world like Venus,

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Speaker 3: but actually that would not be accurate if you're trying

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Speaker 3: to imagine what it's like on the surface of Io,

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Speaker 3: because the average surface temperature of Io is extremely cold.

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Speaker 3: Io has a very thin atmosphere, extremely thin sulfur dioxide atmosphere,

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Speaker 3: too thin to trap heat effectively. And that's you know,

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Speaker 3: one reason Venus is so hot. It's it's because it's

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Speaker 3: got a very thick atmosphere that traps heat within the atmosphere.

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Speaker 3: Io does not have that. So while it's got these

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Speaker 3: super you know, extremely hot hot spots where the volcanoes

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Speaker 3: are erupting or the lava flows are taking place, you

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Speaker 3: might have a lake of lava that's going to be

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Speaker 3: incredibly hot. Most of the Moon is very cold, with

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Speaker 3: an average surface temperature of negative one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 3: degrees celsius or negative two two fahrenheit. So astronomers sometimes

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Speaker 3: call it a like a world of fire and ice.

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Speaker 3: It's a place where you have these gigantic, massive erupting

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Speaker 3: volcanoes and giant long lava flows, you know, going New

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Speaker 3: York to Providence, Rhode Island, but at the same time

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Speaker 3: you'll have these almost whimsically frisky ice world conditions. For example,

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Speaker 3: I mentioned the fact that Io has this very thin

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Speaker 3: atmosphere of mostly sulfur dioxide. Some of that sulfur dioxide

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Speaker 3: comes directly from volcanic eruptions venting screaming hot sulfur from below,

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Speaker 3: but the other half comes from the gradual evaporation or

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Speaker 3: technically sublimation of vast fields of sulfurous ice already on

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Speaker 3: the planet's surface. So there's a pattern that goes like this.

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Speaker 3: The volcano erupt and they shoot sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.

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Speaker 3: It floats around. Then once every forty two hours or so,

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Speaker 3: Io passes briefly into Jupiter's shadow, so it becomes eclipsed

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Speaker 3: and all sunlight is blocked, and this causes the surface

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Speaker 3: temperature to drop even further. It causes the Moon to

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Speaker 3: temporarily go into a deep cold cold enough to actually

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Speaker 3: cause the lower SO two atmosphere level to freeze and

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Speaker 3: fall to the surface. Then, when Io emerges from its

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Speaker 3: eclipse and comes back into the sunlight, the frozen planes

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Speaker 3: of sulfur snow start to warm up and sublimate into

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Speaker 3: gas once again, which becomes part of the tenuous atmosphere.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot more we'll have to get into

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Speaker 3: about the Moon, but just starting with this portrait, this

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Speaker 3: sketch here, I really would make the case for Io

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Speaker 3: as one of the most interesting places in the Solar system,

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Speaker 3: you know, beyond Earth, one of the most challenging and

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Speaker 3: range and dramatic and fascinating places in all of space.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, the closer you look at it than the

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Speaker 1: more amazing details there are.

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Speaker 3: Now, speaking of dramatic landscapes, I did want to mention

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Speaker 3: one more of the images that really got me interested

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Speaker 3: in doing the series of episodes. This one actually is less,

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Speaker 3: I think, less directly a photograph and more kind of

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Speaker 3: an image generated based on it was like a three

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Speaker 3: D image that's like an artist's concept based on data

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Speaker 3: from Juno's Juno CAAM instrument, So it's not just made

404
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Speaker 3: up like it is based on data they took from

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Speaker 3: the surface, but it's like a generated three D image

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Speaker 3: and it's of iOS steeple mountain that's worth looking up

407
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Speaker 3: at home, folks. It's this mountain that comes up out

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Speaker 3: of the surface like a blade. It's just like so

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Speaker 3: sharp and then has the spires reaching up from the

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Speaker 3: top of it. And so if you look this up,

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Speaker 3: there are sort of animation you can find online where

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Speaker 3: the perspective goes around the mountain to sea, from its

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Speaker 3: day side into its night side and shadow. And it's Oh,

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Speaker 3: it's very haunting, especially because it has a strong, lonely

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Speaker 3: mountain energy. It's not part of a mountain range. It's

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Speaker 3: just one giant blade of mountain raising up out of

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Speaker 3: an otherwise relatively flat plane.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, with these two spires, one has the appearance of

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Speaker 1: being broken. Reminds me of the horns of Golgataath, two

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00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: horns coming up out of the ruined earth. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty evocative.

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Speaker 3: But Io is actually full of these strange and gorgeous

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Speaker 3: surface features both the ones that rise and the ones

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Speaker 3: that sink.

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Speaker 1: That's right. Another interesting feature is Boa sally monts. This

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Speaker 1: apparently stands as the tallest known peak on Io, standing

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Speaker 1: between seventeen point five kilometers that's ten point nine mile

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Speaker 1: and eighteen point two kilometers are eleven point three miles

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Speaker 1: in height. It is named for the cave where the

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Speaker 1: we'll get into this. The Greek mythological figure Io is

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Speaker 1: said to have given birth to her son. We'll get

432
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: into all that in a bit, and Boa Salle means cowpin.

433
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 1: Will also get into what that means how cows feature

434
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: into this this mythology. But it is the third tallest

435
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:33,560
Speaker 1: known mountain ridge in our solar system, behind only Olympus

436
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: Monds on Mars, which is the tallest, and the equatorial

437
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: ridge on the Saturn nine moon Iapetus.

438
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the big spine in the middle of the Appetus.

439
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 3: That was good.

440
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:47,760
Speaker 1: Let's see there are a number There are a number

441
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 1: of other mountains mountains. The mountains on Io have all

442
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: sorts of names, some related, some related to Dante's Inferno,

443
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: some related to other mythological traditions. But there are at

444
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: least four other ones that have names that are related

445
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 1: to the myth of Io that will get into in

446
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: a bit. There's Argos Planum named for the land of

447
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: Io's father. There's Epaphus Mensa named for Io's son, there's

448
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 1: Hermes Mensa. You'll find out how Hermei's factors into everything.

449
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,879
Speaker 1: And then there's an Anachius Tholus, name for Io's father.

450
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:30,600
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned Loki earlier. This is, of course the

451
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:35,119
Speaker 1: namesake is the Norse god Loki. And rather than a mountain,

452
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 1: it is, of course a great volcanic depression with a

453
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: lake of magma in it. This is a Loki ptera.

454
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,920
Speaker 1: As described by the JPL website, this is one hundred

455
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: and twenty four mile long or two hundred kilometer long

456
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: lake filled with magna, rimmed with hot lava, and dotted

457
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: with islands, but with one huge island in the middle

458
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:01,359
Speaker 1: of it. And they stress on the JPL website that

459
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: this large island in the lake does not have a name,

460
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: which I think only intensifies the feeling that either a

461
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:09,520
Speaker 1: it does have some sort of name and you just

462
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: can't say it, or that there is some sort of

463
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: unholy castle there. You know, the island in the lake

464
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:18,800
Speaker 1: of magma that cannot be named.

465
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 3: Do not ask after its name, for it has none.

466
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if they're looking for a name, I'm thinking, well, okay,

467
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 1: if the area is named for Loki and it's within Loki,

468
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:30,919
Speaker 1: will name it after one of the monsters that Loki

469
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: gives birth to. I mean, you have, like, I think,

470
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: four good ones to choose from. There's Hell, there's yormagand

471
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: there's finn Rear, and there's slept Near. But hey, I'm

472
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 1: no astronomer. Those names may be taken already now. They

473
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: also add that there were reflective aspects to the Loki

474
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: Petera during the Juno flyover, suggesting that its surface was

475
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 1: as smooth as glass. Now perhaps smooth as glass in

476
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 1: these passes, but also food for thought. There was a

477
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: previous twenty seventeen analysis that turned up infrared data that

478
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: suggested that the temperature of the lava lake steadily increased

479
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: from one end to the other, suggesting overturning waves. Overturning

480
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: lava is a popular explanation for fluctuations in the Moon's

481
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: apparent brightness, with brightenings occurring every four hundred to six

482
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: hundred days. Another explanation is that it's due to just

483
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: regular volcanic eruptions that you know, spike the brightness of

484
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 1: the moon.

485
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 3: I wonder if that's related to or different from what

486
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 3: Sagan brought up about the changes in like the radar

487
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 3: reflectivity of the of the moon over time.

488
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,719
Speaker 1: I think it's related. That's my understanding, and I am

489
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: for you, Joe. Others can look this up as of publication.

490
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: It's certainly on the JPL website. You can see a

491
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: computer generated image of what this lake would look like.

492
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: And this is from like a short computer animated video

493
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 1: that kind of like zooms in on it. And it's

494
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 1: I like this image because it's it's maybe not one

495
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: blockbuster CGI. It feels a little you know, mind's eye

496
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: to me. And also the magma in the lake has

497
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 1: the coloration of like deep crimson blood, which of course

498
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 1: only intensifies the the unholy qualities of this place.

499
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:21,959
Speaker 3: This is just fitting something seems very beyond the mind's

500
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 3: eye about Io. It's a place where if I went there,

501
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 3: I would expect to be seeing like you know, those

502
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,719
Speaker 3: nude early nineties CGI figures kind of embracing and then

503
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 3: melting into each other and then turning into bats.

504
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, all to a nice Yon Hammer soundtrack for sure,

505
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 1: too far, take it easy, all right, Well, shall we

506
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 1: get into the mythology.

507
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 3: Of Io a bit? Oh? Absolutely.

508
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 1: Now, we mentioned already about the discovery of Jupiter's moon Io,

509
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 1: and we we mentioned the discovery sixteen ten by Italian

510
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: astronomer or Galileo. However, there is also a case to

511
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 1: be made, and it was made by him specifically that

512
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 1: German astronomer Simon Marius discovered it independently or instead of

513
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 1: depending on he's making the argument.

514
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,479
Speaker 3: I think I've read that it was said like they

515
00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 3: probably discovered it around the same time.

516
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But Marius is often credited with naming the

517
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: moon after the Greek mythological figure Io, who is fittingly

518
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: associated with Zeus aka Jupiter in Roman traditions. Now, if

519
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 1: you're not familiar with Simon Marius, do look. Do go

520
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: to the Wikipedia page about him, if nothing else, just

521
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: to see this wonderful illustration of the man. This is

522
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: an engraving of Marius in his own book Mundus Lovialis

523
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 1: the World of Jupiter from sixteen fourteen. He looks like

524
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 1: a dashing Necroman there in this shot.

525
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Warlock infernal pack to Warlock. Actually, though he

526
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 3: looks a bit This is gonna sound funny. He looks

527
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 3: a bit like Galileo. Yeah, he's got a similar kind

528
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 3: of face, a similar kind of eyes and scowl, and

529
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 3: a similar beard. He's like Warlock Galileo.

530
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: Look at that collar though, such an amazing.

531
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 3: Collar packed of the lens.

532
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 1: All right, So what is the myth of Io? Well,

533
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: the basic story, as it is usually told, is as follows.

534
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 1: Io was the mortal daughter of Anachus, the river god

535
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 1: of Argos, and the oceanid Melia, herself the daughter of

536
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 1: the titans Oceanus and Tethys. The exact number varies, but

537
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 1: Io had many sisters, and Anachus also is also referenced

538
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: in mythology as the first king of Argos, which is

539
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: an ancient city in Greece. So the story goes that

540
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 1: Io served as the high priestess of Hera, who is

541
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: of course the wife of the high king of the

542
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 1: god Zeus. But the king of the gods was of

543
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: course ever lustful, to put it mildly, and soon came

544
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: to desire Io. Now thet the tellings of this tale vary,

545
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: but at the very least he became enamored with her,

546
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,200
Speaker 1: and some accounts describe his feelings for her as love.

547
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:25,720
Speaker 1: Avid in The Metamorphosis describes the encounter in more threatening

548
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 1: and ultimately violent terms. I'm going to read from the

549
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 1: Henry t Riley translation. Jupiter had seen Io as she

550
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: was returning from her father's stream, and had said, Oh, Maid,

551
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 1: worthy of Jove, and destined to make I know not

552
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: whom happy in thy marriage. Repair to the shades of

553
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,400
Speaker 1: this lofty grove. And he pointed at the shade of

554
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: the grove, while it is warm, and while the sun

555
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: is at his height, in the midst of his course.

556
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: But if thou art afraid to enter the lonely abodes

557
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 1: of the wild beasts alone, thou shalt enter the recesses

558
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 1: of the grove's safe under the protection of a god,

559
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: and that a god of no common sort. But with me,

560
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,640
Speaker 1: who hold the scepter of heaven in my powerful hand,

561
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 1: me who hurl the wandering lightnings, do not fly from me.

562
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,879
Speaker 1: For now she was flying, and now she had left

563
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 1: behind the pastures of Lerna and the Lursaan, planes planted

564
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: with trees. When the God covered the earth far and

565
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 1: wide with darkness, overspreading and arrested her flight and forced

566
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: her modesty. So, to be clear, what Avid is describing

567
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: here is supernatural pursuit and sexual assault.

568
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, from what I've read, I think some versions of

569
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 3: the story describe it as a kind of seduction. Other

570
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 3: versions describe it as a rape. In this version, I mean,

571
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,319
Speaker 3: either way, we're seeing something that we see a lot

572
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 3: of Zeus doing in Greek mythology. Yeah.

573
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, And again it does vary with the tellings. I

574
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: believe there's at least one version where he ultimately impregnates

575
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:58,520
Speaker 1: her by just touching her with his hand. So, as

576
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 1: is generally the case, there's no real c cannon with mythology.

577
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 1: There are just the more popularized versions of the tale,

578
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:08,080
Speaker 1: and sometimes those are very much connected to Avid's work

579
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 1: in the Metamorphosis. So, after this has occurred, Zeus transforms

580
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: Io into a cow, a white heifer, in order to

581
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 1: hide her and his own transgressions from his wife Harah. Because,

582
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,120
Speaker 1: of course, of course, Hara is too wise for any

583
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,839
Speaker 1: of this, and she knows her husband too well, so

584
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 1: she almost immediately shows up and begins asking questions about

585
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 1: this beautiful white cow that Zeus is suddenly hanging out with.

586
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 1: And Ovid writes, quote Jupiter falsely asserts that it was

587
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: produced out of the earth and that the owner may

588
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 1: cease to be inquired after which, despite the horror of

589
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,800
Speaker 1: the situation setting this up, this line has a certain

590
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 1: dry comedy to it, and I wonder if that was

591
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:51,279
Speaker 1: at present in the original writing or if this is

592
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 1: like an artifact of translation.

593
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 3: I read that same line that it was produced out

594
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 3: of the earth. Yeah, this cow just kind of grew

595
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 3: out of the ground. That happens sometimes.

596
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: So he's trying to get out of it. But Hara,

597
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,760
Speaker 1: she knows what's up, and so she requests this beautiful

598
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: cow as a gift, and Zeus has no choice but

599
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:11,799
Speaker 1: to comply, because if he says no, well then he's

600
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: admitting that this is no mere cow. And if he

601
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 1: just gives it up, well then you know they both

602
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 1: know what's going on here. And so he gives the

603
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: cow up to Hara, and Harah entrusts the White effort

604
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: to the protection of the one hundred eyed giant Argos

605
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 1: Panopties the all Seeing, and there are different depictions of

606
00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: what Argus looks like. Sometimes he's depicted as a giant

607
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: with eyes all over his body. Other times he's depicted

608
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 1: as a humanoid or with no special features, or as

609
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,799
Speaker 1: a humanoid with a bunch of eyes on or in

610
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:52,520
Speaker 1: his head. In either event, not to be confused with Argos,

611
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: the place that we mentioned earlier, this is Argus. So

612
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:59,359
Speaker 1: the basic idea is Zeus cannot come and get his

613
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 1: cow back at this point because there is an all

614
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,280
Speaker 1: seeing giant that is watching it all the time. Sitting

615
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:08,319
Speaker 1: on the top of a mountain. He can see in

616
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 1: all directions at once. Nothing is getting past him. And yes,

617
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 1: Zeus is king of the gods. But I think the

618
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 1: idea is that, yes, Zeus is all powerful, but if

619
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 1: he actually shows up to claim the white heifer, then

620
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 1: the gig is up and he is almost has to

621
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:25,240
Speaker 1: admit defeat.

622
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:29,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, Harrow will find out exactly now.

623
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:32,160
Speaker 1: In the midst of all this, it is said that

624
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: that Io is suffering the metamorphosis here is quite miserable.

625
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: The way av describes it. She has to live as

626
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 1: an animal not mistreated by the all seeing giant, but

627
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,840
Speaker 1: also not well loved either, making matters all the more traumatic.

628
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 1: When she wanders close to the water, which is described

629
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 1: as the water off her father, her own father and

630
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: her various sisters do not recognize her, at least not

631
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 1: at first. They see only the white heifer, and eventually

632
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 1: her father recognizes her, and it's heartbreaking. And there are

633
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,240
Speaker 1: numerous paintings that explore this scene with like an old

634
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 1: man having this this heart breaking encounter with a white cow.

635
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:16,359
Speaker 2: Oh.

636
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I was trying to tell if that was

637
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,399
Speaker 3: one of the things depicted in There's a painting of

638
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:24,759
Speaker 3: the second half of this myth that I put in

639
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 3: our outline by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, who was an Italian

640
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,320
Speaker 3: painter like the end of the fifteenth century. This painting

641
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,440
Speaker 3: is called the Myth of Io, and it's showing a

642
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 3: bunch of different scenes from it, though we really do

643
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 3: not get much of a hundred eyed giant in this. Instead,

644
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,320
Speaker 3: Argust just looks like he's like a shepherd.

645
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sometimes he's just a dude. Other times he's this

646
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:49,880
Speaker 1: like weird psychedelic giant with eyes all over his body.

647
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 1: So it just varies.

648
00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:53,839
Speaker 3: But we do see the heifer at various places, at

649
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 3: one point near the water's edge, so I can't tell

650
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:58,600
Speaker 3: if that's the part of the myth that's being depicted here.

651
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 1: This story of like transformation and loved ones not recognized

652
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 1: you recognizing you in your transformed state reminds me of

653
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,959
Speaker 1: a children's book that came out in nineteen sixty nine

654
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 1: called Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Are you familiar with

655
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:12,319
Speaker 1: this one?

656
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 3: Joe sounds vaguely familiar, But we don't like read this

657
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:18,320
Speaker 3: one in the house.

658
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:20,200
Speaker 1: So okay, Well, you might have picked up at some

659
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:22,840
Speaker 1: point because it's heartbreaking as well. It has a magical

660
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 1: transformation and parents not recognizing their own child in a

661
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:30,960
Speaker 1: transformed state. But it's a great book. Well, you know,

662
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,879
Speaker 1: won a number of awards, won the Caldocott Metal back

663
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:35,760
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy.

664
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:37,799
Speaker 3: I'll look it up. But okay, so we're in a

665
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 3: really sad place in the middle of this myth.

666
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: Right right, I was in a terrible place Zeus Sometimes

667
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 1: it's described as if he finds this heartbreaking as well,

668
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: but at the very least he tires of being controlled.

669
00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 1: And what does he do, Well, he can't show himself, apparently,

670
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 1: so he sends Hermes to simply murder.

671
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 3: Argus Mercury the hit man here.

672
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, the harbinger of the gods ere the Messenger

673
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:10,800
Speaker 1: of the gods this time shows up with his Caduceius

674
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 1: to put the giant to sleep and then slays him

675
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: with the sword and the eyes of Argus then go

676
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:19,439
Speaker 1: to the tail of the peacock, a symbol of Hara Oh.

677
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:20,000
Speaker 3: Interesting.

678
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 1: Now, at this point, the white effer can wander free,

679
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:29,040
Speaker 1: and Harra sends a gadfly to torment her. Gadflies are

680
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 1: livestock biting flies, probably horse flies or bot flies, but

681
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:37,320
Speaker 1: in Greek mythology they're sometimes employed by the gods elsewhere.

682
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 1: Zeus was once said to send one to sting Pegasus.

683
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:44,799
Speaker 1: At one point, this was while Balerafin was riding Pegasus,

684
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,400
Speaker 1: so caused him to fall out of the sky, but

685
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:53,319
Speaker 1: don't worry. Athena then softened his fall. So anyway, Io,

686
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,600
Speaker 1: in the form of the white cow, basically wanders driven

687
00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:01,920
Speaker 1: by flies sent by the gods, and eventually she is

688
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 1: driven to Egypt, where she resumes her human form and

689
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 1: gives birth to a son of Zeus in a cave.

690
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:12,280
Speaker 1: We mentioned that earlier, and this is Epaphus, who becomes

691
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 1: king of Egypt, and it said founds the city of Memphis.

692
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:19,359
Speaker 1: Avid also mentions that Io went on to marry none

693
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 1: other than APIs or Osiris, who after his death was

694
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:28,240
Speaker 1: numbered among the deities of Egypt by the name Serapis. Oh.

695
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 3: Interesting, Yeah, for those not aware, we did serious of

696
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 3: episodes on the Egyptian deity Osiris. When was this like

697
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:38,239
Speaker 3: last year or the year.

698
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:41,000
Speaker 1: Before, Yes, sometime in the last couple of years. Yeah,

699
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 1: And we talked about Siapis as a Greco Egyptian syncretic

700
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: deity based on both of Cyrus and APIs, as well

701
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:53,799
Speaker 1: as aspects of various other Greek deities. Under Potomaic rule,

702
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: Avid writes Io terrified and maddened with dreadful visions, runs

703
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:02,440
Speaker 1: over me any regions, and stops in Egypt when Juno,

704
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 1: at length, being pacified, restores her to her former shape

705
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: and permits her to be worshiped there under the name

706
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:09,240
Speaker 1: of Isis.

707
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 3: Wow. Well, that is a fascinating cross cultural backstory, though

708
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 3: not to imply that the same backstory would actually be

709
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,720
Speaker 3: understood by the people who worshiped Isis in Egypt.

710
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 1: Right right, though, of course, the worship of Isis like

711
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:26,399
Speaker 1: spreads out of Egypt, and then you know how they're

712
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:28,759
Speaker 1: worshiping Isis in other areas, such as in Greek and

713
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 1: Roman times. Well again, maybe they employ some of this,

714
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:35,359
Speaker 1: but yeah, at this point in our telling of the

715
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 1: myth of ioh we can appreciate that we're talking about

716
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 1: something that is probably a Greek and Roman take on

717
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:46,279
Speaker 1: the Egyptian throne goddess Isis, mother of every Egyptian king.

718
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,480
Speaker 1: It's worth noting that elsewhere in Greek tradition, Isis is

719
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 1: also associated with Demeter. In either case, the popularity of

720
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:57,920
Speaker 1: Isis in Egypt spreads over into Greek mythology here. Yeah,

721
00:42:58,040 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 1: Now it can be a little confusing though, because I

722
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 1: was looking other artistic depictions of Io, and there's one

723
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: that from the first century BCE. It's a fresco from

724
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 1: the Temple of Isis in Pompeii that depicts Io being

725
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 1: received by Isis upon her arrival in Egypt. And if

726
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 1: you can see an image of it here Joe in

727
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 1: our notes in this Io actually has the horns of

728
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:23,200
Speaker 1: a cow as well.

729
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that may not square in some ways

730
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:29,440
Speaker 3: with what we just talked about it, but that seems

731
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:33,839
Speaker 3: to me perfectly consistent with the sort of shuffling mix

732
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 3: and match quality of ancient mythology.

733
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:41,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, in Egyptomania A History of Fascination, Obsession, and Fantasy

734
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:45,440
Speaker 1: by Ronald H. Fritz. This is the book I've cited

735
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,839
Speaker 1: on the show before. The author points to the myth

736
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,799
Speaker 1: of Io is one of several examples of contact and

737
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:55,080
Speaker 1: cultural exchange between Greece and Egypt during the era of

738
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: the New Kingdom. This was between the sixteenth century BC

739
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 1: in the eleventh century BCE. You know, they're fairly difficult

740
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 1: travel between the two regions at the time, but there

741
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 1: was still cultural exchange and other sorts of exchange as

742
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: well well.

743
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 3: So it's an emotionally powerful myth with interesting cross cultural relevance.

744
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 3: But this does bring me back to the question of like,

745
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 3: how does it fit into the planet Jupiter and its moon,

746
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 3: how do we get from there?

747
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 1: To hear well, most likely most of it does come

748
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 1: down to just the Jupiter Zeus association. Marius's choice in

749
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:35,960
Speaker 1: naming it Io was apparently based on a sixteen thirteen

750
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 1: suggestion by Johannes Kepler that the Jovian moons all be

751
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 1: named for the lovers of Zeus. But it's also worth

752
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 1: stressing that there was apparently there's a connection to be

753
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 1: made between mythic Io and Earth's own moon, so she

754
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:55,240
Speaker 1: has seemingly has lunar qualities all her own. Anyway, According

755
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:59,000
Speaker 1: to classicist Peter T. Struck in his online Pin State

756
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 1: Classics Dictionary, Io is the wanderer and is generally explained

757
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:08,120
Speaker 1: as a moon goddess wandering in the starry heavens. These

758
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 1: heavens symbolized by Argus's one hundred shining eyes, and then

759
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:18,239
Speaker 1: her transformation into a horned heifer represents nothing other than

760
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: the crescent moon. Oh interesting, Yeah, so yeah, the more

761
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: you look at it, like, the myth of Io is

762
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:28,280
Speaker 1: is ultimately fairly complicated because you have all these different,

763
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:31,239
Speaker 1: you know, cross cultural exchanges bound up in it. There's

764
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: the lunar aspect of it as well as you know,

765
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,600
Speaker 1: some of these aspects of the story that can be

766
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 1: troubling and confounding, especially to modern readers that are learning

767
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 1: about it, you know, across the thousands of years of history.

768
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:49,840
Speaker 1: All Right, on that note, we're gonna go ahead and

769
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:51,879
Speaker 1: close up this episode of stuff to blow your mind,

770
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:54,200
Speaker 1: but we're gonna be back in a part two on

771
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:59,959
Speaker 1: the Moon of Io. We'll get into some more cure

772
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:05,960
Speaker 1: curious details about the moon in that episode. In the meantime,

773
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:07,879
Speaker 1: we'd like to remind you all this Stuff to Blow

774
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,400
Speaker 1: Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with

775
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 1: core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short form episodes on

776
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,600
Speaker 1: Wednesdays and on Fridays. We set aside most serious concerns

777
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: to just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.

778
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:23,800
Speaker 3: Huge thanks, as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

779
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

780
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:28,280
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

781
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

782
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,359
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact stuff to Blow your

783
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:41,600
Speaker 3: Mind dot com.

784
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

785
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,520
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

786
00:46:48,600 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 2: or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.

787
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: West West d d RAT