Danaïdes

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 Pausanius. The names of the Danaids are inscribed in lists from Apollodorus and Hyginus, though they differ greatly.

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. 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.

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 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.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. This fountain, river, or spring created by and named after Amymone is mentioned by multiple ancient authors including Pliny, Ovid, and Apollodorus. 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. 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. After sparing her husband, Hypermnestra helped Lynceus flee back to safety either with his father in Egypt or to Lynceia, a city in the Argolid. Occasionally, Amymone and/or Bryce 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. 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.
Some accounts tell that their punishment in Tartarus was being forced to carry a jug to fill a pithos without a bottom to wash their sins off. Because the water constantly leaked, they would forever try to fill the pithos without succeeding.

Scholarship and interpretation

Throughout generations of scholarship and to present day, there have been numerous interpretations of the meaning and purpose behind the myth of the Danaids. 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 to be an origin for natural phenomena in the Lerna region, in particular attributing it to 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 of the myth serving this purpose with the inclusion of Amymone as one of the Danaids. However, this interpretation is not as readily agreed upon 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 who 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 Bibliotheca 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.

No.	Danaids	Mother	Aegyptus' Sons	Mother	No.	Danaids	Mother	Aegyptus' Sons	Mother
1	Hypermnestra	Elephantis	Lynceus	Argyphia	26	Chrysippe	Memphis	Chrysippus	Tyria
2	Gorgophone	Elephantis	Proteus	Argyphia	27	Autonoe	Polyxo, a naiad	Eurylochus	Caliadne, a naiad
3	Automate	Europe	Busiris	Argyphia	28	Theano	Polyxo, a naiad	Phantes	Caliadne, a naiad
4	Amymone	Europe	Enceladus	Argyphia	29	Electra	Polyxo, a naiad	Peristhenes	Caliadne, a naiad
5	Agave	Europe	Lycus	Argyphia	30	Cleopatra	Polyxo, a naiad	Hermus	Caliadne, a naiad
6	Scaea	Europe	Daiphron	Argyphia	31	Eurydice	Polyxo, a naiad	Dryas	Caliadne, a naiad
7	Hippodamia	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Istrus	Arabian woman	32	Glaucippe	Polyxo, a naiad	Potamon	Caliadne, a naiad
8	Rhodia	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Chalcodon	Arabian woman	33	Antheleia	Polyxo, a naiad	Cisseus	Caliadne, a naiad
9	Cleopatra	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Agenor	Arabian woman	34	Cleodore	Polyxo, a naiad	Lixus	Caliadne, a naiad
10	Asteria	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Chaetus	Arabian woman	35	Evippe	Polyxo, a naiad	Imbrus	Caliadne, a naiad
11	Hippodamia	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Diocorystes	Arabian woman	36	Erato	Polyxo, a naiad	Bromius	Caliadne, a naiad
12	Glauce	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Alces	Arabian woman	37	Stygne	Polyxo, a naiad	Polyctor	Caliadne, a naiad
13	Hippomedusa	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Alcmenor	Arabian woman	38	Bryce	Polyxo, a naiad	Chthonius	Caliadne, a naiad
14	Gorge	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Hippothous	Arabian woman	39	Actaea	Pieria	Periphas	Gorgo
15	Iphimedusa	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Euchenor	Arabian woman	40	Podarce	Pieria	Oeneus	Gorgo
16	Rhode	Atlanteia or of Phoebe, the Hamadryads	Hippolytus	Arabian woman	41	Dioxippe	Pieria	Aegyptus	Gorgo
17	Pirene	Ethiopian woman	Agaptolemus	Phoenician woman	42	Adite	Pieria	Menalces	Gorgo
18	Dorion	Ethiopian woman	Cercetes	Phoenician woman	43	Ocypete	Pieria	Lampus	Gorgo
19	Phartis	Ethiopian woman	Eurydamas	Phoenician woman	44	Pylarge	Pieria	Idmon	Gorgo
20	Mnestra	Ethiopian woman	Aegius	Phoenician woman	45	Hippodice	Herse	Idas	Hephaestine
21	Evippe	Ethiopian woman	Argius	Phoenician woman	46	Adiante	Herse	Daiphron	Hephaestine
22	Anaxibia	Ethiopian woman	Archelaus	Phoenician woman	47	Callidice	Crino	Pandion	Hephaestine
23	Nelo	Ethiopian woman	Menemachus	Phoenician woman	48	Oeme	Crino	Arbelus	Hephaestine
24	Clite	Memphis	Clitus	Tyria	49	Celaeno	Crino	Hyperbius	Hephaestine
25	Sthenele	Memphis	Sthenelus	Tyria	50	Hyperippe	Crino	Hippocorystes	Hephaestine