Danaïdes

Sources from Antiquity

The most complete version of the Danaid myth is found in Apollodorus's Bibliotheca. The story was also documented by several other authors in ancient Greece and Rome, such as in Pindar's Pythian Odes, Pausanius' Description of Greece, and Hyginus's Fabulae. Aeschylus also devoted a dramatic trilogy to the subject, containing The Suppliants, The Egyptians, and The Danaids, or perhaps a tetralogy including Amymone. The Danaids are also the subject of an epic poem which has been lost, called the Danais.

In the Metamorphoses by Roman poet Ovid, the Danaids are referenced briefly as the “daughters of Belus,” or the Beliedes in some translations, after their grandfather Belus. They appear to Orpheus when he enters Hades, appearing alongside other mythical figures such as Sisyphus.

They also are referenced in Strabo’s Geography, where he describes how the Danaids discovered water underneath the region of Lerna, bringing wells to the previously waterless region surrounding Argos.

Family

The Danaids were all daughters of Danaus, king of Libya. In most versions of the myth Danaus is said to be a son of Belus and Achiroe, however, in Euripides' version of the myth he is the son of Io. The Danaids grandfather, Belus, was a son of Poseidon, and ruled over a large territory in the middle east and Northern Africa, including Assyria, Egypt, Libya, and Arabia. Belus and Achiroe had three sons: Cepheus and twin brothers Danaus and Aegyptus.

Despite having the same father, the Danaids may have all been born of different women, though the names and number of women differ between authors. Apollodorus claims that six of the daughters were born to the naiad Polyxo; six to Pieria; two to Elephantis; four to Queen Europa; ten to the hamadryad nymphs Atlanteia and Phoebe; seven to an Aethiopian woman; three to Memphis; two to Herse, and lastly four to Crino. According to Hippostratus, all of the daughters were begotten by Europa, the daughter of the river god Nilus. In other accounts, Melia, daughter of King Agenor, was the mother of all the Danaids.

Mythology

Danaus and Aegyptus

Danaus and his twin brother Aegyptus were given territories by their father to rule over. Danaus was chosen to be king of Libya, while Aegyptus was sent to rule the Kingdom of Arabia, which he later called Egypt, after himself. Both men fathered 50 children, with Danaus having 50 daughters (the Danaids) and Aegyptus having 50 sons. When their father died, Aegyptus and Danaus fought over his inheritance. Disguising it as a form of truce, Aegyptus proposed marriages between all their children. However Danaus suspected his brother had a plan to overthrow him and his kingdom, and therefore refused the marriage proposal. Under the advice of Athena, he built a boat and fled Egypt with his daughters, sailing out of Chemmis.

Danaus and the Danaids sailed to Rhodes, where there they set up a monument to honor Athena Lindia. In some versions, the Daniads were the ones to build the temple at the site. After being in Rhodes, they sailed to the coast of Apobathmi, a location not far from Lerna and Argos.

Arrival in Argos

After arriving in Argos, Danaus declared that he was divinely chosen by Athena to rule Argos. The current king of Argos, King Pelasgus, did not believe him. Even so, Pelasgus got together an assembly to discuss Danaus' claim to the throne. Unsure how to decide, they agreed to reconvene in the morning. However, after seeing a wolf killing a bull the next morning, Pelasgus feared this was an omen that Danaus would take over Argos with violence, and therefore vacated the throne peacefully.

During Danaus' rule, a drought ravaged Argos. Previously, Poseidon had dried up all the springs around Argos due to Inachus, the first king of Argos, making a sacrifice to Hera and claiming the lands belonged to her instead of Poseidon, whose cult preceded hers in the region.[[File:Danaïdes_tuant_leurs_maris_BnF_Français_874_fol._170v.jpg|left|thumb|269x269px|The Danaïdes kill their husbands, miniature by [[Robinet Testard]].]]One day, one of the Danaids, Amymone, was sent out to fetch water. While out, she fell asleep and was attacked by a satyr. Seeing this, Poseidon intervened and scared the satyr away by throwing his trident; it became lodged in a rock. Poseidon questioned why she was there, and after she told him she was fetching water, he had Amymone remove his trident from the rock, where a spring then gushed forth. This fountain, river, or spring created by and named after Amymone is mentioned by multiple ancient authors including Pliny, Ovid, and Apollodorus. They claim the spring is near to the lake of Lerna where the hydra lived.

Marriages of the Danaids

Meanwhile, Aegyptus was enraged by his brother's betrayal. He organized an army led by all his sons, and sent them to Argos with the command that they should not return until either Danaus was dead or he had consented to let the brothers marry the Danaids. Danaus, facing a probable loss and wanting to protect the Argives, agreed to let the brothers marry his daughters in a large wedding feast where every couple was married on the same night. However, Danuas gave all the Danaids daggers, and instructed them to cut off their husband's heads after they had fallen asleep on their wedding night and bring the heads to him as proof of their deaths. The Danaids all followed their father's command except one: Hypermnestra, who spared her husband Lynceus because he respected her desire to remain a virgin. After sparing her husband, Hypermnestra helped Lynceus flee back to safety either with his father in Egypt or to Lynceia, a city in the Argolid. Occasionally, Amymone and/or Bryce (Bebryce) are instead named as the Danaids who defied Danaus.

Danaus was enraged that his daughter refused to do as he ordered, so he imprisoned her and tried her in the Argive courts. In Euripides' version of the myth, Lynceus killed Danaus and his daughters as revenge for the death of his brothers. However, Apollodorus instead has Danaus uniting Hypermnestra and Lynceus, and later passing the kingdom to his son-in-law.

Apollodorus claims the heads of the murdered husbands were buried at Lerna, where the Danaids carried out funeral rites in front of the city. In this version, Athena and Hermes then purified the ground at the command of Zeus. However, Pausanias claims the heads were instead buried at Larisa, and the headless bodies were buried in Lerna.

After the Murders

Afterwards, the Danaids were said to be remarried through athletic contests, specifically footraces. Pindar claimed that Danaus would place one of his daughters at the end of a racecourse, and arrange for the suitors to race towards her. The first man to touch her robes could then marry her. Pausanias instead wrote that Danaus had great difficulty in marrying off his daughters due to their crime, so he sent out a notice that he would give away his daughters without bride-gifts, and that each suitor could choose whichever daughter pleased him most. He then held a footrace where participants were able to choose their wives according to the order in which they finished. Races were carried out until every daughter was chosen.

Some accounts tell that their punishment in Tartarus was being forced to carry a jug to fill a pithos without a bottom (or with a leak) to wash their sins off. Because the water constantly leaked, they would forever try to fill the pithos without succeeding.

Scholarship and interpretation

Throughout generations of scholarship and to present day, there have been numerous interpretations of the meaning and purpose behind the myth of the Danaids. In the Renaissance, humanist Boccaccio interpreted the myth to be a cautionary tale against the vanity of women, using the punishment of the Daniads in the underworld as evidence.

Scholars have interpreted the myth to be an origin for natural phenomena in the Lerna region, in particular attributing it to the springs. In 1894 Ludwig Preller published Griechische Mythologie in which he interpreted the Danaids as nymphs and their husbands as the springs. Preller described how the Danaids murdered the springs each year, explaining this as the Greek mythological reasoning for the drying up of the springs during the summer. Scholars further found evidence of the myth serving this purpose with the inclusion of Amymone as one of the Danaids. However, this interpretation is not as readily agreed upon today.

Other scholars, such as Richard Buxton, have interpreted the myth of the Danaids as a tale that represents a woman’s role in relation to her father and her husband. The Danaids must choose who to protect, their father or their newly betrothed, and all but Hypermnestra chose their father.

The Danaïds and their husbands

Apollodorus

The list in the Bibliotheca preserves not only the names of brides and grooms but also those of their mothers. A lot was cast among the sons of Aegyptus to decide which of the Danaids each should marry, except for those daughters born to Memphis who were joined by their namesakes, the sons of Tyria. According to Hippostratus, Danaus had all these progenies begotten by a single woman, Europa, the daughter of Nilus.

Hyginus

Hyginus' list is partially corrupt, and some of the names are nearly illegible. Nevertheless, this catalog has almost nothing in common with that of Pseudo-Apollodorus. Names with the (†) symbol mean corrupted entries but annotations from various editors were provided to rationalize their possible names.

Ellis

A third list was provided by the English antiquarian, Henry Ellis, which was derived from Hyginus. The names of the Danaïdes were complete but with new entries and some alterations in the spellings. It can be observed that the names Armoaste and Danaes (Danais) were an addition to complete the list, while Scea (Scaea) and Autonomes (Automate), which were borrowed from Apollodorus' accounts were also added.

Other Danaïdes

Several minor female characters mentioned in various accounts unrelated to the central myth of Danaus and the Danaïdes are also referred to as daughters of Danaus. These include:

• Archedice, along with her sister Helice and two others, chosen by lot by the rest, had founded the temple of Lindian Athene where they made offerings on Lindos in Rhodes.
• Anaxithea, mother of Olenus by Zeus.
• Amphimedusa, mother of Erythras by Poseidon
• Eurythoe, one of the possible mothers of Oenomaus by Ares; alternatively, mother of Hippodamia by Oenomaus
• Hippe, who, like her sister Amymone, gave her name to a freshwater source
• Hippodamia, mother of Olenus by Zeus. (Maybe the same as the above Anaxithea)
• Isonoe or Isione or Hesione, mother of Orchomenus or Chryses by Zeus.
• Kamira
• Phaethusa, one of the possible mothers of Myrtilus by Hermes
• Phylodameia, mother of Pharis by Hermes
• Physadeia, who, like her sister Amymone, gave her name to a freshwater source
• Polydora, nymph-mother of Dryops (Oeta) by the river god Spercheus
• Side, mythical eponym of a town in Laconia

Modern literature

The Daughters of Danaus is also the title of an 1894 novel by Mona Caird, also dealing with imposed marriage although, in this case, it is a single marriage instead of 50, and in 19th-century Great Britain.

In 1910, the Hungarian poet Mihály Babits published his poem The Danaids, translated into English by Peter Zollman and István Tótfalusi.

Magda Szabó's 1964 novel, A Danaida (The Danaid), is about a woman who lives selfishly for two-thirds of her life without realizing that even she can change the course of history.

Le Châtiment des Danaïdes is an essay by the French-Canadian author Henri-Paul Jacques applying the Freudian concept of psychoanalysis to studying the punishment imposed on the Danaïdes after they committed their crimes.

In Monday Begins on Saturday, it is mentioned that the Danaïdes had their case reviewed in modern times, and, due to mitigating circumstances (the marriage being forced), had their punishment changed to laying and then immediately demolishing asphalt.

Notes

References

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Callimachus. Hymns, translated by Alexander William Mair (1875–1928). London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Clement of Alexandria, Recognitions from Ante-Nicene Library Volume 8*,* translated by Smith, Rev. Thomas. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 1867. Online version at theio.com.
• Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• John Tzetzes, Book of Histories, Books VII-VIII translated by Vasiliki Dogani from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826. Online version at theio.com.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

References

1. Bell, Robert E.. (1991). "Women of Classical Mythology : A Biographical Dictionary.". ABC-CLIO.
2. Graves, Robert. (1955). "The Greek Myths". Penguin Books Inc..
3. Bonner, Campbell. (1900). "The Danaid-Myth". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association.
4. Diamantopoulos, A.. (1957). "The Danaid Tetralogy of Aeschylus". The Journal of Hellenic Studies.
5. Brown, Andrew. (2015). "Danaus and the Danaids".
6. Ovid. ''Metamorphoses''. Book 10, lines 10-63.
7. Strabo, ''[[Geography]].'' 8.6.8
8. Bonner “A Study of the Danaid Myth.”, Campbell. (1902). "A Study of the Danaid Myth". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology.
9. Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D5 2.1.5]
10. [[Scholia]] on [[Apollonius of Rhodes. Apollonius Rhodius]], Notes on Book 3.1689
11. March, Jenny. (2008). "The Penguin Book of Classical Myths". The Penguin Group.
12. (1973). "Who's Who in Classical Mythology". Oxford University Press.
13. (2015). "Callimachus: Aetia". Dickinson College Commentaries.
14. Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D15%3Asection%3D4 2.15.4]
15. Smith, William. "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology: Amymo'ne".
16. Smith, William. "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology: Amymo'ne".
17. Hyginus, ''[https://topostext.org/work/206#169 Fabulae]'' 169
18. Pliny, ''The Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=4:chapter=9&highlight=amymone 4.9]
19. Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.%20Met.%202.240&lang=original 2.240]
20. Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.%202.5.2&lang=original 2.5.2]
21. Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%202.24.2&lang=original 2.24.2]
22. Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=19&highlight=hypermnestra 2.19.6]
23. [[Ovid]], ''[[Heroides]]''. 14
24. "Commentary on the Heroides of Ovid: Hypermnestra".
25. William Smith, Mahmoud Saba. (1857). "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (volume II)". Walton and Maberly.
26. Holinshed, Raphael. "The Historie Of England, From The Time That It Was First Inhabited, Vntill The Time That It Was Last Conquered".
27. Scholia on [[Pindar]], ''Pythian Ode'' 9.200
28. [[Eustathius of Thessalonica. Eustathius]] on [[Dionysius Periegetes]], 805
29. Pindarus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Pind.%20P.%209&lang=original P.9.]
30. Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%203.12.2&lang=original 3.12.2]
31. Buxton, Richard. (1994). "Imaginary Greece". University of Cambridge Press.
32. Preller, Ludwig. (1894). "Griechische Mythologie". Berlin Weidmann.
33. Bonner, Campbell. (1900). "The Danaid-Myth". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association.
34. Buxton, Richard. (1994). "Imaginary Greece". Cambridge University Press.
35. [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus). Apollodorus]], 2.1.5
36. [[John Tzetzes. Tzetzes]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades7.html ''Chiliades'' 7.37 p. 370-371]
37. [[Hyginus (Fabulae). Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170]
38. Schmidt emended this as [[Idaea]] or Midea
39. Schmidt emended this as [[Panthous]]; Bunte suggested this as [[Pandion (mythology). Pandion]], see [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus). Apollodorus]], 2.1.5
40. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (Latin ed. Schmidt): possibly can be read as Iphigomene, or as [[Iphinoe (mythology). Iphinoe]] and [[Theonoe]]
41. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (Latin ed. Schmidt): possibly Euchenor compared to Agenor
42. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (Latin ed. Schmidt): possibly can be read as [[Demodice]]
43. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (Latin ed. Schmidt): possibly [[Chrysippe]] as cited in Apollodorus, 2.1.5 p. 85 Heyne
44. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (Latin ed. Bunte): possibly can read as [[Pierus]]
45. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (annotation by Robert Unger): possibly Trete as cited in [[Statius]]' ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem). Thebaid]]'' p. 195
46. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] (Latin ed. Bunte): possibly can read as [[Damno (mythology). Damno]]
47. compare with [[Hippothous]] in Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' 2.1.5
48. Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] with annotations by Mauricius Schmidt
49. compare with [[Bromius]] in Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' 2.1.5 as cited in Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] with annotations by Mauricius Schmidt
50. can be read as Myrmydone as cited in Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] with annotations by Mauricius Schmidt
51. corrected as [[Oeneus]] by Bernhardus Bunte in Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] and compare to Oeneus in Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' 2.1.5
52. can be read possibly as Cleodora (Mauricius Schmidt) or simply [[Clio (mythology). Clio]] (Bernhardus Bunte) in their annotations of Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170]
53. compare with [[Asteria (mythology). Asteria]] in Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' 2.1.5 as cited in Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] with annotations by Mauricius Schmidt
54. can be read possibly as Philinna according to Mauricius Schmidt in his annotations of Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170]
55. can be read possibly as Phileas (Phileam) according to Mauricius Schmidt in his annotations of Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170]
56. [[Raphael Holinshed. Raphaell Holinshed]], [[William Harrison Ainsworth. William Harrison]], [[Richard Stanihurst. Richard Stanyhurst]], [[John Hooker (English constitutionalist). John Hooker]], [[Francis Thynne]], [[Abraham Fleming]], [[John Stow]]. ''[[Holinshed's Chronicles
57. (March 7, 2001). "The Parian Marble".
58. [[Herodotus]], ''[[Histories (Herodotus). Histories]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/22#2.182 2.182]
59. [[Stephanus of Byzantium]], ''Ethnica'' s.v. ''[https://topostext.org/work/241#O707.12 Olenos]''
60. [[Scholia]] on [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'', 2. 499
61. [[Scholia]] on [[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' 1.752
62. [[Tzetzes]] on [[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' 157
63. [[Clement of Alexandria]], ''Recognitions'' 10.21
64. [[Scholia]] on ''[[Apollonius Rhodius]], Argonautica'' 1.230
65. [[Pherecydes of Syros. Pherecydes]], fr. 37a
66. [[Pausanias (geographer)
67. [[Callimachus]], Hymn 5 to [[Athena]], 47–48
68. [[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''Metamorphoses'', 32
69. Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+3.22.11&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:book=3:chapter=22&highlight=Side 3.22.11]
70. [https://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00022/00051/ Issue 5, vol. 1910] of the semimonthly literary journal ''[[Nyugat]]''
71. [https://www.babelmatrix.org/works/hu/Babits_Mih%C3%A1ly-1883/A_Danaid%C3%A1k/en/21674-The_Danaids The Danaids] in Hungarian and in English, translated by Peter Zollman
72. [https://www.babelmatrix.org/works/hu/Babits_Mih%C3%A1ly-1883/A_Danaid%C3%A1k/en/28993-The_Danaids The Danaids] in Hungarian and in English, translated by István Tótfalusi
73. Vian Francis. (1969). "Henri-Paul Jacques, Mythologie et psychanalyse « Le Châtiment des Danaïdes »". Revue des Études Anciennes.