Editing Peafowl (section)

=== Ancient Greece ===
[[File:Peacock walking.jpg|thumb|A peacock walking freely around a zoo]]

Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl did not decay after death,{{cn|date=October 2023}} so it became a symbol of immortality. In Hellenistic imagery, the Greek goddess [[Hera]]'s chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]. Alexander's tutor, [[Aristotle]], refers to it as "the Persian bird". When Alexander saw the birds in India, he was so amazed at their beauty that he threatened the severest penalties for any man who slew one.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aelian, De Natura Animalium, book 5, chapter 21|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.21|access-date=8 February 2023|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=4 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604090056/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.21|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Claudius Aelianus]] writes that there were peacocks in India, larger than anywhere else.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aelian, De Natura Animalium, book 16, chapter 2|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:16.2|access-date=8 February 2023|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806082854/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:16.2|url-status=live}}</ref>

One myth states that Hera's servant, the hundred-eyed [[Argus Panoptes]], was instructed to guard the woman-turned-cow, [[Io (mythology)|Io]]. Hera had transformed Io into a cow after learning of [[Zeus]]'s interest in her. Zeus had the messenger of the gods, [[Hermes]], kill Argus through eternal sleep and free Io. According to [[Ovid]], to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in the peacock's tail.<ref>[[Ovid]] I, 625. The peacock is an Eastern bird, unknown to Greeks before the time of Alexander.</ref>