In Greek mythology, the Danaïdes (; , ) also Danaides or Danaids, were the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Libya. In the most common version of the myth, the daughters were forced to marry the sons of Danaus' brother Aegyptus. In retaliation, Danaus commanded them to kill their husbands on their wedding night, and all but one, Hypermnestra, obeyed. The Danaids were then condemned to spend eternity carrying water in a sieve or perforated jug.
The myth of the Danaids is found in numerous written accounts from antiquity, such as in the writings of Apollodorus, Pindar, and Pausanias. The names of the Danaids are inscribed in lists from Apollodorus and Hyginus, though they differ greatly.
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, Pausanias' 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 Belides in some translations, after their grandfather Belus. They appear to Orpheus when he enters Hades, appearing alongside other mythical figures such as Sisyphus.Ovid. Metamorphoses. Book 10, lines 10–63.
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.Strabo, Geography. 8.6.8.
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.Apollodorus, 2.1.5 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.Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Notes on Book 3.1689
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.Pausanias, 2.15.4 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.Hyginus, Fabulae 169 This fountain, river, or spring created by and named after Amymone is mentioned by multiple ancient authors including Pliny,Pliny, The Natural History 4.9 Ovid,Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.240 and Apollodorus.Apollodorus, 2.5.2 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.Pausanias. 2.24.2 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.Pausanias. 2.19.6 After sparing her husband, Hypermnestra helped Lynceus flee back to safetyOvid, Heroides. 14 either with his father in Egypt or to Lynceia, a city in the Argolid. Occasionally, AmymoneScholia on Pindar, Pythian Ode 9.200 and/or Bryce (Bebryce)Eustathius on Dionysius Periegetes, 805 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.Pindarus, P.9. 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.Pausanias. 3.12.2
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 Across generations of scholarship, and to the present day, there have been numerous interpretations of the myth of the Danaids' meaning and purpose. 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 as an origin of natural phenomena in the Lerna region, particularly 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 that the myth served this purpose, including Amymone among the Danaids. However, this interpretation is not widely accepted 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 whom 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 BibliothecaApollodorus, 2.1.5 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.Tzetzes, Chiliades, 7.37, p. 370–371.
+ Apollodorus' list of DanaidsNo.DanaidsMotherAegyptus' sonsMotherNo.DanaidsMotherAegyptus' sonsMother1HypermnestraElephantisLynceusArgyphia26ChrysippeMemphisChrysippusTyria2GorgophoneProteus27AutonoePolyxo, a naiadEurylochusCaliadne, a naiad3AutomateEuropeBusiris28TheanoPhantes4AmymoneEnceladus29ElectraPeristhenes5AgaveLycus30Cleopatra (different one)Hermus6ScaeaDaiphron31EurydiceDryas7HippodamiaAtlanteia or of Phoebe, the HamadryadsIstrusArabian woman32GlaucippePotamon8RhodiaChalcodon33AntheleiaCisseus9CleopatraAgenor34CleodoreLixus10AsteriaChaetus35Evippe (different one)Imbrus11Hippodamia (different one)Diocorystes36EratoBromius12GlauceAlces37StygnePolyctor13HippomedusaAlcmenor38BryceChthonius14GorgeHippothous39ActaeaPieriaPeriphasGorgo15IphimedusaEuchenor40PodarceOeneus16RhodeHippolytus41DioxippeAegyptus17PireneEthiopian womanAgaptolemusPhoenician woman42AditeMenalces18DorionCercetes43OcypeteLampus19PhartisEurydamas44PylargeIdmon20MnestraAegius45HippodiceHerseIdasHephaestine21EvippeArgius46AdianteDaiphron (different one)22AnaxibiaArchelaus47CallidiceCrinoPandion23NeloMenemachus48OemeArbelus24CliteMemphisClitusTyria49CelaenoHyperbius25StheneleSthenelus50HyperippeHippocorystes
Hyginus Hyginus' listHyginus, Fabulae 170 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.