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TauManualV4.1p007a
1.2 About the name ARGUS
Somewhat jokingly the name ARGUS can be interpreted as the acronym of ‘Anti-Re-identification General Utility System’[2] As a matter of fact, the name ARGUS was inspired by a myth of the ancient Greeks. In this myth Zeus has a girl friend named Io. Hera, Zeus’ wife, did not approve of this relationship and turned Io into a cow. She let the monster ARGUS guard Io. ARGUS seemed to be particularly well qualified for this job, because it had a hundred eyes that could watch over Io. If it would fall sleep only two of its eyes were closed. That would leave plenty of eyes to watch Io. Zeus was eager to find a way to get Io back. He hired Hermes who could make ARGUS fall asleep by the enchanting music on his flute. When Hermes played his flute to ARGUS this indeed happened: all its eyes closed, one by one. When Hermes had succeeded in making ARGUS fall asleep, ARGUS was decapitated. ARGUS’ eyes were planted onto a bird’s tail - a type of bird that we now know under the name of peacock. That explains why a peacock has these eye-shaped marks on its tail. This also explains the picture on the cover of this manual. It is a copperplate engraving of Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711) depicting the process where the eyes of ARGUS are being removed and placed on the peacock’s tail.[3]
Like the mythological ARGUS, the software is supposed to guard something, in this case data. This is where the similarity between the myth and the package is supposed to end, as we believe that the package is a winner and not a loser as the mythological ARGUS is.
[2] This interpretation is due to Peter Kooiman, former head of the methodology department at Statistics Netherlands.
[3] The original copy of this engraving is in the collection of ‘Het Leidsch Prentenkabinet’ in Leiden, The Netherlands.
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