Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/119

ABDUCTIONS OF HEROIC WOMEN. 87 trate the phenomenon which early Grecian history is constantly presenting to us. - the way in which the epical furniture of an unknown past is recast and newly colored so as to meet those changes which take place in the retrospective feelings of the present. The religious and poetical character of the old legend disappears : nothing remains except the names of persons and places, and the voyage from Argos to Egypt : we have in exchange a sober, quasi-historical narrative, the value of which consists in its bearing on the grand contemporary conflicts between Persia and Greece, which filled the imagination of Herodotus and his readers. To proceed with the genealogy of the kings of Argos, lasus was succeeded by Krotopus, son of his brother Agenor ; Kroto- pus by Sthenelas, and he again by Gelanor. 1 In the reign of the latter, Danaos came with his fifty daughters from Egypt to Argos ; and here we find another of those romantic adventures which so agreeably decorate the barrenness of the mythical gen- ealogies. Danaos and JEgyptos were two brothers descending from Epaphos, son of 16 : JEgyptos had fifty sons, who were eager to marry the fifty daughters of Danaos, in spite of the strongest repugnance of the latter. To escape such a necessity, Danaos placed his fifty daughters on board of a penteconter (or vessel with fifty oars) and sought refuge at Argos ; touching in his voyage at the island of Rhodes, where he erected a statue of Athene at Lindos, which was long exhibited as a memorial of his 1 It would be an unprofitable fatigue to enumerate the multiplied and irre- concilable discrepancies in regard to every step of this old Argeian geneal- ogy. Whoever desires to sec them brought together, may consult Schubart, Qucestiones in Antiquitatem Heroicam, Marpurg, 1832, capp. 1 and 2. The remarks which Schubart makes (p. 35) upon Pctit-Radel's Chrono- logical Tables will be assented to by those who follow the unceasing string of contradictions, without any sufficient reason to believe that any one of them is more worthy of trust than the remainder, which he has cited : " Videant alii, quomodo genealogias heroicas, et chronologize rationes, in concordiam redigant Ipse abstineo, probe persuasus, stemmata vera, his- torise fide comprobata, in systema chronologiaa redigi posse : at ore per Bzecnla tradita, a poctis reficta, saepe mutata, prout fabula postulare ideba tnr, ab historiarum deinde conditoribus restituta, scilicet, brevi qualia prostant stemmata chronologic secundum unnos distributae vincul scmpei recusatura esse."