Aeschylus’s tragedy Prometheus Bound includes Io and Inachos. Prometheus Bound describes the river god Inachos as grazing sheep and cattle. Inachos seeks messages from gods from the oracles at Delphi and Dodona. In response to an oracle, Inachos banishes his daughter Io from his “home and country” to wander the earth. Zeus subsequently transforms Io into a heifer.

Io and Inachos, while gods, have quite human characters. The lives of humans and gods in fifth-century Athens were closely related and intertwined.