Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When Io, driven as a cow to Egypt, was restored to human form, Zeus touched her and she bore Epaphus—named from the touch (*epaphus*). He became a king in Egypt; later Greek ethnography sometimes equated him with the sacred bull Apis. Hera’s hostility continued in some strands (Hera’s Curetes or Titans kidnap the child; Io wanders again seeking him), but the handbook main line sets Epaphus on the throne and makes him father of Libya, from whom Poseidon begets Agenor and Belus. Through Belus come Aegyptus and Danaus; through Agenor come Europa and Cadmus. Epaphus is thus the Egyptian root of both the Danaid return to Argos and the Phoenician–Theban stemma. Catalogue his birth and kingship apart from Io’s wanderings and from Belus’s twin sons.