Io was a mortal lover of Zeus, some of the legends say that to hide his lover from his wife, he turned her into a white heifer, other versions say that Hera turned her into the Heifer, on the legends go, so that Hera when she found out about Io as the white heifer sent the gadfly to sting her constantly, so Io left and wandered the earth to try to rid herself of the constant stings of the gadlfy, the Bosporus (0x passage) was so named because she swam across the straight on her wanderings. Eventually Io was to escape to Egypt across her namesake Ionian Sea and be returned to human form by Zeus.

The Ionian islands seem to have a storied past as well,settled by the greeks around 1000 bc, invaded by the Romans, the Venetians, the Russian Turks and the British through history.

From the Mountains on the Ionian Isle of Corfu, Fritillaria ionica doesn't disappoint, the green areas on the bells are lightly checkered, and the brown and green pattern is always a show stopper on this hardy albiet somewhat compact species