Hypermnestra#Daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis

Hypermnestra was one of two daughters born of King Danaus of Libya and Elephantis, with her only full sister being Gorgophone, as the rest of the 48 Danaids were begotten by other women. Danaus was the son of King Belus of Egypt and either the naiad Archiroe, daughter of the river god Nilus, or Side, the namesake of Sidon.Malalas, [https://topostext.org/work/793#2.30 2.30]

In other versions of the myth, all of the Danaids were born of Melia, daughter of King Agenor of Tyre.Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica Notes on Book 3.1689

Hypermnestra's father, King Danaus of Libya had a twin brother Aegyptus, an Egyptian king.Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.1.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=0:chapter=0&highlight=Danaus 2.1.4] Both men fathered 50 children, with Danaus having 50 daughters (the Danaids) and Aegyptus having 50 sons.Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.1.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=0:chapter=0&highlight=Danaus 2.1.5] Aegyptus proposed marriages between all their children, but Danaus refused and fled with his family to Argos, as an oracle once foretold that he would die by 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}} King Pelasgus of Argos surrendered the city to Danaus, and he became king.

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 siege and a probable loss, 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]

File:Hypermnestra Folio.jpg

While all 49 other sisters followed through with their father's command and killed their husbands, Hypermnestra refused because her husband Lynceus{{cite book |last=William Smith, Mahmoud Saba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tJIfAAAAMAAJ&dq=Lyrcus&pg=PA231 |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (volume II) |publisher=Walton and Maberly |year=1857 |location=Original from the University of Michigan |pages=231}} honored her wish to remain a virgin. However, in Ovid's telling of the story, Hypermnestra does not mention her virginity, but believes the act of murdering her husband is barbarous and immoral. She states she would rather be found guilty of betraying her father than committing murder, for she believes it to be an unforgivable act.Ovid, Heroides. 14 After sparing her husband, Hypermnestra helped Lynceus flee back to safety either with his father in Egypt{{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}} or to Lynceia, a city in the Argolid.{{cite book |last=William Smith, Mahmoud Saba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tJIfAAAAMAAJ&dq=Lyrcus&pg=PA231 |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (volume II) |publisher=Walton and Maberly |year=1857 |location=Original from the University of Michigan |pages=231}}{{Cite web |last=Holinshed |first=Raphael |title=The Historie Of England, From The Time That It Was First Inhabited, Vntill The Time That It Was Last Conquered |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.03.0084:book=1:chapter=3&highlight=lynceus |access-date=2025-04-05 |website=Perseus Digital Library}} In the version of the myth where he flees to Lynceia, Lynceus informed his wife of his safety by lighting a torch: she then informed him of her safety by lighting a torch from Larissa, the citadel of Argos. The city was later named Lynceia in his honor.Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=paus.+2.25.4 25.4]

Danaus was enraged by Hypermnestra's disobedience. He imprisoned her and tried her in the Argive courts. However, she was acquitted— alternatively, saved by Aphrodite— and to commemorate her escape, commissioned an image of Aphrodite, "Bringer of Victory."Pausanias. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=19&highlight=hypermnestra 2.19.6] In some versions of the myth, Lynceus killed Danaus for his treachery, and in others, Danaus died years later and passed the kingdom to Lynceus.Hyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#273 273]

Together Lynceus and Hypermnestra had a son, Abas, the first king of the Abantiad Dynasty and the founder of Abae.Apollodorus. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1 2.2.1]John Conington, Commentary on Vergil's Aeneid, Volume 1, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0050:book=3:commline=286&highlight=hypermnestra 3.286].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]

Apollodorus claims the heads of the murdered husbands were buried at Lerna, where 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. Additionally, in some versions of the myth, the Danaides were punished in the underworld by being forced to carry water in a jug with holes, or a sieve, so the water always leaked out. Hypermnestra, however, went straight to Elysium.

Ovid wrote a letter from Hypermnestra to Lynceus, which appears in his Heroides.

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a Legend of Hypermnestra.[http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/chaucer_review/v036/36.1aloni.pdf A Curious Error?: Geoffrey Chaucer’s Legend of Hypermnestra, The Chaucer Review, Vol 36, Number 1, 2001, accessed 2 May 2013]

Francesco Cavalli wrote Hipermestra, first performed at Florence on 12 June 1658, as a festa teatrale opera.

Hypermnestra is referred to in John Webster's tragedy 'The White Devil', in a speech by the scheming courtesan Flamineo:

"...Trust a woman? never, never... We lay

our souls to pawn to the devil for a little pleasure, and a woman makes

the bill of sale. That ever man should marry! For one Hypermnestra

that saved her lord and husband, forty-nine of her sisters cut their

husbands' throats all in one night."

Charles-Hubert Gervais composed the opera Hypermnestre, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) on 3 November 1716.

Ignaz Holzbauer composed a German opera entitled Hypermnestra with a German libretto by Johann Leopold van Ghelen that was performed in Vienna in 1741.

Antonio Salieri composed the opera Les Danaïdes with a French libretto by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and Louis-Théodore de Tschudi in 1784, premiering in Paris.

{{Argive genealogy in Greek mythology}}

{{Commons category|Hypermnestra (mythology)}}

• City of Lyrceia

{{reflist}}

• Ovid, Heroides 14.
• Eusebuis, Chronicon 46.8-12, 47.22-23.
• Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos I.ii.i.
• Lactantius Placidus, Commentarii in Statii Thebaida II.222.

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Category:Danaïdes

Category:Queens in Greek mythology

Category:Princesses in Greek mythology