Depicted here is a story from the Metamorphoses (Transformations) by the Roman poet Ovid. Jupiter, the king of the gods and an incorrigible adulterer, tries to deceive his wife Juno by turning his lover Io into a beautiful white cow. Io, in the guise of a cow, reclines at the left, while high up in the sky Juno approaches in her peacock-driven chariot.