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Classical Mythology. a giant with 100 eyes, set to guard the heifer Io: his eyes were transferred after his death to the peacock’s tail.
a son of Phrixus and builder of the Argo.
(in the Odyssey) Odysseus’ faithful dog, who recognized his master after twenty years and immediately died.
any observant or vigilant person; a watchful guardian.
(lowercase). Also, argus pheasant. any of several brilliantly marked Malayan pheasants of the Argusianus or Rheinardia genera.
Astronomy. a very large southern constellation, now divided into Vela, Carina, Puppis, and Pyxis, four separate constellations lying largely south of Canis Major.
(italics) Classical Mythology. the ship in which Jason sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece.
Historical Examples

The method in which the newspaper, called the Argus, was published, is an extraordinary proof of this fact.
Travels in France during the years 1814-1815 Archibald Alison

I always was weak where the interests of the Argus were concerned.
In the Midst of Alarms Robert Barr

Here he kept an Argus guard while Zaleski, in one deep unbroken slumber of a night and a day, reposed before him.
Prince Zaleski M.P. Shiel

Yates threw off his coat, and went to work as if he were in his own den in the Argus building.
In the Midst of Alarms Robert Barr

The affair of the Argus and the Pelican was not calculated to inflate Yankee pride.
The Fight for a Free Sea: A Chronicle of the War of 1812 Ralph D. Paine

Then you must land at Queenstown and cable a complete account to the Argus.’
A Woman Intervenes Robert Barr

What would be done by Bernadette, whose every movement was watched by the Argus eyes of Jacomet and of his agents?
Catholic World, Vol. XIII, April to September, 1871 Various

Won’t there be some swearing in the Argus when that appears!
A Woman Intervenes Robert Barr

Some spiteful remarks by opposite partisans were made in the Melbourne Argus on this very natural and complimentary resolution.
Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia William John Wills

He would sue the Argus for libel, which, by the way, he never did.
A Woman Intervenes Robert Barr

noun
any of various brown butterflies, esp the Scotch argus (Erebia aethiops) found on moorland and in forests up to a height of 2000 m
noun
(Greek myth) a giant with a hundred eyes who was made guardian of the heifer Io. After he was killed by Hermes his eyes were transferred to the peacock’s tail
a vigilant person; guardian
noun
(Greek myth) the ship in which Jason sailed in search of the Golden Fleece
noun (Latin genitive) Argus (ˈɑːɡəs)
an extensive constellation in the S hemisphere now subdivided into the smaller constellations of Puppis, Vela, Carina, and Pyxis Also called Argo Navis (ˈneɪvɪs)

hundred-eyed giant of Greek mythology, late 14c., from Latin, from Greek Argos, literally “the bright one,” from argos “shining, bright” (see argent). His epithet was Panoptes “all-eyes.” After his death, Hera transferred his eyes to the peacock’s tail. Used in figurative sense of “very vigilant person.”

name of the ship in which Jason and his companions sought the Fleece in Colchis, in Greek, literally “The Swift,” from argos “swift” (adj.), an epithet, literally “shining, bright” (see argent; cf. also Sanskrit cognate rjrah “shining, glowing, bright,” also “swift”), “because all swift motion causes a kind of glancing or flickering light” [Liddell and Scott].

A creature in classical mythology who had a hundred eyes. Hera set him to watch over Io, a girl who had been seduced by Zeus and then turned into a cow; with Argus on guard, Zeus could not come to rescue Io, for only some of Argus’ eyes would be closed in sleep at any one time. Hermes, working on Zeus’ behalf, played music that put all the eyes to sleep and then killed Argus. Hera put his eyes in the tail of the peacock.
language
A successor to CLU, from LCS at MIT. Argus supports distributed programming through guardians (like monitors, but can be created dynamically) and atomic actions (indivisible activity). It also has cobegin and coend.
[“Argus Reference Manual”, B. Liskov et al., TR-400, MIT/LCS, 1987].
[“Guardians and Actions: Linguistic Support for Robust, Distributed Programs”, B. Liskov et al, TOPLAS 5(3):381-404 (1983)].
(1995-12-28)