Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Argos.
The gallery
Ulysses and His Dog
John Flaxman, c. 1792–1793
Flaxman's outline engraving for the Odyssey freezes the recognition: Argos lifts his head from the dung-heap as the disguised Odysseus passes — the twenty-year wait ended in a single glance.
The Dog of Ulysses
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 19th century
Ingres isolates Argos as a study of loyalty: the hound of Ithaca, neglected yet still knowing — Odyssey 17 distilled into a single animal portrait.
Odysseus Recognized by His Dog Argos
Unknown (Dutch printmaker), 17th century
A Rijksmuseum plate from an Odysseus cycle shows the beggar-king and the dying dog — Argos as the only creature on Ithaca who sees through the disguise before he dies.
Odysseus and Argos
Jean-Auguste Barre, 19th century
Barre's print returns to the same Homeric instant: Argos knows his master at the threshold of the palace — fidelity staged as the quietest recognition in the epic.
In play
Odyssey
Homer
Book 17 gives Argos his entire life in a few dozen lines: bred by Odysseus, left on the dung-heap, knowing his master at a glance, and dying as the king enters the hall — the epic's most concentrated image of loyalty.
Argos (dog)
Odysseus' hound — the dog who waited twenty years and recognized the beggar at the gate before his strength failed.