:Danaïdes

While all of the Danaids were daughters of Danaus, they may have all been born of different women. 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.Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Notes on Book 3.1689

King Danaus had a twin brother Aegyptus, an Egyptian king. Both men fathered 50 children, with Danaus having 50 daughters (the Danaids) and Aegyptus having 50 sons. Aegyptus proposed marriages between all their children, but Danaus refused, as an oracle once foretold that he would die to the hand of his son-in-law.{{Cite web |title=Commentary on the Heroides of Ovid: Hypermnestra |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0061:poem=14&highlight=hypermnestra |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=Perseus Digital Library}} He fled with his daughters to Argos, a city located in Greece near the ancient city of Mycenae. King Pelasgus of Argos surrendered the city to Danaus, and he became king.Apollodorus. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D4 2.1.4]

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, he gave all the Danaids swords, and instructed them to kill their husbands after they had fallen asleep on their wedding night and bring their heads to him as proof of the deed.Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%202.24.2&lang=original 2.24.2]

All the Danaids followed their father's command except one: Hypermnestra, who spared her husband Lynceus because he respected her desire to remain a virgin. Danaus was angered that his daughter refused to do as he ordered, so he imprisoned her and tried her in the Argive courts.Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=19&highlight=hypermnestra 2.19.6] In one version of the myth, Lynceus killed Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers, and he and Hypermnestra had Abas, founding king of the Danaid Dynasty.Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+10.35.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:book=10:chapter=35&highlight=Abas 10.35.1] In other versions of the myth, Danaus himself united Hypermnestra and Lynceus and later passed the kingdom to Lynceus.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] 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.Image:Danaïdes tuant leurs maris BnF Français 874 fol. 170v.jpg.]]Apollodorus claims the heads of the murdered husbands were buried at Lerna, where the Danaids carried out funeral rites in front of the city and 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. Afterwards, the Danaids were said to be remarried through athletic contests, specifically footraces. Pindar claimed that Danaus would place a daughter at the end of a racecourse, and arranged the suitors to race towards her. The first man who touched her robes could then marry her.Pindarus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Pind.%20P.%209&lang=original 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 wife in the order they came in in the race. Races were carried out until every daughter was chosen.Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%203.12.2&lang=original 3.12.2]

Some accounts tell that their punishment in Tartarus was being forced to carry a jug to fill a bathtub (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 tub without succeeding. In the classical tradition, they came to represent the futility of a repetitive task that can never be completed (see also Sisyphus and Ocnus).

The sisters are the subject of an epic of which only one detail is known, the Danais.{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Oxford Classical Dictionary |title=Danaus and the Danaids |first=Andrew |last=Brown |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.2019}} Aeschylus devoted a trilogy to the subject, containing The Suppliants, The Egyptians, and The Danaids, or perhaps a tetralogy, with Amymone.{{cite journal|title=The Danaid Tetralogy of Aeschylus|author=Diamantopoulos, A.|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|year=1957|pages=220–229|volume=77|jstor=629361}}

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, [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades7.html Chiliades 7.37 p. 370-371]

Hyginus' listHyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#170 170] 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.

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.Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, Richard Stanyhurst, John Hooker, Francis Thynne, Abraham Fleming, John Stow. Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0084%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D3 Chapter 3]. Henry Ellis' Edition. J. Johnson. London. 1807. 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.

{{Greek underworld}}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ashmolean.museum/ash/faqs/q004/q004008.html |title=The Parian Marble |at=Entry 9 |website=Ashmolean |date=March 7, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225031833/http://www.ashmolean.museum/ash/faqs/q004/q004008.html |archive-date=December 25, 2013 |access-date=January 24, 2019}}Herodotus, Histories [https://topostext.org/work/22#2.182 2.182]
• Anaxithea, mother of Olenus by Zeus.Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v. [https://topostext.org/work/241#O707.12 Olenos]
• Amphimedusa, mother of Erythras by PoseidonScholia on Homer, Iliad, 2. 499
• Eurythoe, one of the possible mothers of Oenomaus by Ares;Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.752 alternatively, mother of Hippodamia by OenomausTzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 157
• Hippe, who, like her sister Amymone, gave her name to a freshwater source
• Hippodamia, mother of Olenus by Zeus.Clement of Alexandria, Recognitions 10.21 (Maybe the same as the above Anaxithea)
• Isonoe or Isione or Hesione, mother of OrchomenusScholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.230 or Chryses by Zeus.
• Kamira
• Phaethusa, one of the possible mothers of Myrtilus by HermesPherecydes, fr. 37a
• Phylodameia, mother of Pharis by HermesPausanias, Graeciae Descriptio [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+4.+30.+2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%:book=4:chapter=30&highlight=Phylodameia 4.30.2]
• Physadeia, who, like her sister Amymone, gave her name to a freshwater sourceCallimachus, Hymn 5 to Athena, 47–48
• Polydora, nymph-mother of Dryops (Oeta) by the river god SpercheusAntoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 32
• Side, mythical eponym of a town in LaconiaPausanias, 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]

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,[https://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00022/00051/ Issue 5, vol. 1910] of the semimonthly literary journal Nyugat the Hungarian poet Mihály Babits published his poem The Danaids, translated into English by Peter Zollman[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 and István Tótfalusi.[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

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.{{cite journal |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1969_num_71_3_3854_t1_0464_0000_2 |title=Henri-Paul Jacques, Mythologie et psychanalyse « Le Châtiment des Danaïdes » |author=Vian Francis |journal=Revue des Études Anciennes |year=1969 |volume=71 |issue=3–4 |pages=464–465 |language=fr}}

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.

{{commons category|Danaides}}

• Names of the Greeks (Danaans)
• Las Danaides, Alameda Central, Mexico City

{{Reflist}}

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 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. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 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. [https://topostext.org/work/120 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. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/ClementRecognitions.html 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. [https://topostext.org/work/206 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. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades7.html 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. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

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Category:Princesses in Greek mythology

Category:Condemned souls in Tartarus

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Category:Deeds of Athena

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