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ARGUS

 - 8 dictionary results

Ar⋅gus

[ahr-guhs]
–noun
1. Classical Mythology. a giant with 100 eyes, set to guard the heifer Io: his eyes were transferred after his death to the peacock's tail.
2. a son of Phrixus and builder of the Argo.
3. (in the Odyssey) Odysseus' faithful dog, who recognized his master after twenty years and immediately died.
4. any observant or vigilant person; a watchful guardian.
5. (lowercase) Also, argus pheasant. any of several brilliantly marked Malayan pheasants of the Argusianus or Rheinardia genera.

Origin:
< L < Gk Árgos, deriv. of argós bright, shining

Ar⋅go

[ahr-goh]
–noun, genitive Ar⋅gus [ahr-guhs] for 1.
1. Astronomy. a very large southern constellation, now divided into Vela, Carina, Puppis, and Pyxis, four separate constellations lying largely south of Canis Major.
2. (italics) Classical Mythology. the ship in which Jason sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece.

Ar⋅go⋅an, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Ar·gus   (är'gəs)   
n.  
  1. Greek Mythology A giant with 100 eyes who was made guardian of Io and was later slain by Hermes.

  2. An alert or watchful person; a guardian.


[Latin, from Greek Argos.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

Argus

A creature in classical mythology who had a hundred eyes. Hera set him to watch over Io, a girl who had been seduced by Zeus and then turned into a cow; with Argus on guard, Zeus could not come to rescue Io, for only some of Argus' eyes would be closed in sleep at any one time. Hermes, working on Zeus' behalf, played music that put all the eyes to sleep and then killed Argus. Hera put his eyes in the tail of the peacock.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Argo 
name of the ship in which Jason and his companions sought the Fleece in Colchis, in Gk., lit. "The Swift," from argos "swift" (adj.), also "shining, bright" (see argent; cf. also Skt. cognate rjrah "shining, glowing, bright," also "swift"). Hence, Argonaut "sailor of the Argo" (1596), from Gk. nautes "sailor." Adventurers in the California Gold Rush of 1848 were called argonauts (because they sought the golden fleece) by those who stayed home.

Argus 
hundred-eyed giant of Gk. mythology, 1387, from L., from Gk. Argos, lit. "the bright one," from argos "shining, bright" (see argent). His epithet was Panoptes "all-eyes." After his death, Hera transferred his eyes to the peacock's tail. Used in fig. sense of "very vigilant person."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Computing Dictionary

Argus language
A successor to CLU, from LCS at MIT. Argus supports distributed programming through guardians (like monitors, but can be created dynamically) and atomic actions (indivisible activity). It also has cobegin and coend.
["Argus Reference Manual", B. Liskov et al., TR-400, MIT/LCS, 1987].
["Guardians and Actions: Linguistic Support for Robust, Distributed Programs", B. Liskov et al, TOPLAS 5(3):381-404 (1983)].
(1995-12-28)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Encyclopedia

Argus

figure in Greek legend described variously as the son of Inachus, Agenor, or Arestor or as an aboriginal hero (autochthon). His byname derives from the hundred eyes in his head or all over his body, as he is often depicted on Athenian red-figure pottery from the late 6th century BC. Argus was appointed by the goddess Hera to watch the cow into which Io (Hera's priestess) had been transformed, but he was slain by Hermes, who is called Argeiphontes, "Slayer of Argus," in the Homeric poems. Argus's eyes were transferred by Hera to the tail of the peacock. His fate is mentioned in a number of Greek tragedies from the 5th century BC-including two by Aeschylus, Suppliants and Prometheus Bound, and Euripides' Phoenician Women-and the Latin poet Ovid's Metamorphoses from the 1st century AD

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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