Juno (Hera) placed the eyes of Argus Panoptes 'who sees all', or 'all eyes', on the peacock's tail. These 'eyes' are said to represent the stars in the night sky, or the whole starry sky. Argus' name is said to be cognate with the Argo of Argo Navis (Jason entrusted the building of the ship to Argus, after whom it was named), and also with Latin argentum, silver, and it was said that Indus, a neighboring constellation was the discoverer of silver. Argus, or Argos, surnamed Panoptes (pan-, 'all', + optes, 'eyes'), was a giant covered in eyes, depending on the version of the myth he had a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand eyes. Argus never slept, he always had half his eyes open and half closed in sleep at any one time. This might relate to the fact that the Sun is shining on half the earth at any one time while the other half is in darkness under the night stars. Mercury/Hermes, messenger of the gods, (a planet travelling close to the Sun, sometimes appearing before, and with the Sun's rising, at other times with the Sun's setting), cut off Argus' head and thus quenching the lights of the eyes; the lights of the stars. Then Juno put his eyes on the Peacock's tail.
The adjacent constellation Indus might represent Argus himself. The argus pheasant is a relative of the peacock, Pavo cristatus. Indus and Pavo, the Indian and the Peacock, are usually depicted together. Indus, king of Scythia, first discovered silver, Latin argentum, the word is cognate with the word Argus
The word peacock is related to Pavo, pavan or pavane (peacock dance, a processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century). Taos is the Greek name for the peacock, the French word is paon. Pavonated means peacock blue. Latin paupulo is 'the natural sound of the peacock'.
Ponceau is the 'corn poppy' from Old French poncel, a derivative of paon, 'peacock', from Latin pavanem, accusative of pavo, 'peacock'. French paon was used in some North French dialects in the sense of 'poppy' (Klein, p.576.) "The word poppy, is from Vulgar Latin *papavum (whence also Old French pavo)" [Klein, p.577]. The word poppy also comes from Latin papaver, 'poppy'. Opium is the solidified juice of the opium poppy, from Greek opos (<*hopos), juice. The peacock was put in the heavens by Juno and the eyes of Argus Panoptes 'who sees all' was 'all eyes' (ocelli, eye-spots) were put on its tail. [There is a resemblance between Greek ops, genitive opos, 'eye', opsis, 'sight' (the first o is omega), and Greek opos, opium (the first o is omicron)?]
"The peacock is called pavo, therefore, from pavor, fear, since its cry produces fear in those who hear it" [Aberdeen Bestiary]Latin pavor is related to Latin pavere, to fear, and the word pavid, 'exhibiting or experiencing fear', from the Indo-European root *pau-² 'To cut, strike, stamp'. Derivatives include: putamen (an outer layer), putative (supposed), account, amputate, compute, computer, count¹ (in numbers), depute, dispute, impute, repute, (these words from Latin putare, to prune, clean, settle an account, think over, reflect), computer (from Latin computare which means 'to reckon together', from com- 'together' and putare 'to think, to reckon'), deputy, recount, reputation. b. Possibly Latin puteus, well: pit¹ (a hole or cavity in the ground.), pave or pavé (pavement, from Latin pavire, to beat), pavid (timid, from Latin pavire, to fear < 'to be struck'), raconteur ( re- + aconter. One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit). [Pokorny 3. peu- 827. Watkins]
Klein sees the word paean, 'a hymn, a song joy and triumph', from Greek paian, as a likely cognate, a paean is hymn of thanksgiving, often addressed to Apollo, literally 'one who touches', whence used in the sense 'one who heals by a touch', from Greek paio, paiein.
Isidore gives his view on how many of these words are related to each other:
“Pavements (pavimentum) that are worked out with the skill of a picture have a Greek origin; mosaics (lithostratum) are made from little pieces of shell and tiles colored in various hues. They are called pavements because they are 'rammed down' (pavire), that is, beaten. From this also comes the word 'dread' (pavor), which strikes the heart” [p.312.]. "Alarmed (pavidus) is one whom agitation of mind disturbs; such a one has a strong beating of the heart, a moving of the heart - for to quake (pavere) is to beat, whence also the term pavimentum (beaten floor; cf. pavire, 'ram down')" [p.227.]. [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD]Pavements are often made with pebbles and counting was done with pebbles. The word pave can also have the meaning 'pave the way', to prepare a smooth easy path. Hermes amputated the head of Argus, and his eyes were put on the tail of the Peacock by Hera. The peacock represents the starry heavens, the counting of stars is mentioned in the bible:
