BOOK II.
vessel, and departing with his children, comes first to the Rhodian Lindos, then to Argos, where they disembark near Lernai during a time of terrible drought caused by the wrath of Poseidôn. He at once sends his daughters to seek for water ; and Amymonê (the blameless), chancing to hit a Satyr while aiming at a stag, is rescued from his hot pursuit by Poseidôn whose bride she becomes and who calls up for her the never-failing fountain of Lernai. But Aigyptos and his sons waste little time in following them. At first they exhibit all their old vehemence and ferocity, but presently changing their tone, they make proposals to marry, each, one of the fifty Danaides.[1] The proffer is accepted in apparent friendship ; but on the day of the wedding Danaos places a dagger in the hands of each maiden, and charges her to smite her husband before the day again breaks upon the earth. His bidding is obeyed by all except Hypermnestra (the overloving or gentle), who prefers to be thought weak and wavering rather than to be a murderess. All the others cut off the heads of the sons of Aigyptos, and bury them in the marshland of Lernai, while they placed their bodies at the gates of the city. From this crime they were purified by Athénê and Hermes at the bidding of Zeus, who thus showed his approval of their deed. Nevertheless, the story grew up that in the world of the dead the guilty daughters of Danaos were condemned to pour water everlastingly into sieves.
<<left sidenote| Hyperminestra and Lynkeus </ref> Danaos had now to find husbands for his eight and forty daughters, Hypermnestra being still married to Lynkeus and Amymoné to Poseidón. This he found no easy task, but at length he succeeded through the device afterwards adopted, we are told, by Kleisthenes. There were, however, versions which spoke of them as all slain by Lynkeus, who also put Danaos himself to death. There is little that is noteworthy in the rest of the legend, unless it be the way in which he became chief in the land where the people were after him called Danaoi. The dispute for supremacy between himself and Gelanor is referred to the people, and the decision is to be given on the following day, when, before the appointed hour, a wolf rushed in upon the herd feeding before the gates and pulled down the leader. The wolf was, of course, the minister of the Lykian Apollôn ; the stricken herd were the subjects of the native king, and the smitten ox was the king himself. The interpretation was obvious, and Gelanor had to give way to Danaos. <<left sidenote| Origin of the myth}} What is the meaning and origin of this strange tale ? With an ingenuity which must go for towards producing conviction, Preller
- ↑ With this number we may compare the fifty daughters of Daksha in the Hindu Mythology, and of Thestios, fifty sons of Pallas and Priam.
