Danaus
And the Danaides
In Greek mythology, Danaus was the twin brother of Aegyptus and a son of the king of Egypt (descended from the famous Argive maiden Io, whom Zeus seduced). Aegyptus and Danaus quarreled, driving Danaus to flee by ship with his fifty daughters (the Danaides) to the ancestral homeland of Argos. There Danaus took the throne. (After him the Achaeans of Argos were called Danai.)
[2.1.4] Reigning over the Egyptians Epaphus married Memphis, daughter of Nile, founded and named the city of Memphis after her, and begat a daughter Libya, after whom the region of Libya was called.21 Libya had by Poseidon twin sons, Agenor and Belus.22 Agenor departed to Phoenicia and reigned there, and there he became the ancestor of the great stock; hence we shall defer our account of him.23 But Belus remained in Egypt, reigned over the country, and married Anchinoe, daughter of Nile, by whom he had twin sons, Egyptus and Danaus,24 but according to Euripides, he had also Cepheus and Phineus. Danaus was settled by Belus in Libya, and Egyptus in Arabia; but Egyptus subjugated the country of the Melampods and named it Egypt . Both had children by many wives; Egyptus had fifty sons, and Danaus fifty daughters. As they afterwards quarrelled concerning the kingdom, Danaus feared the sons of Egyptus, and by the advice of Athena he built a ship, being the first to do so, and having put his daughters on board he fled. And touching at Rhodes he set up the image of Lindian Athena.
Aegyptus' 50 sons had pursued the Danaides across the sea. With such a palpable threatening presence, Aegyptus was able to coerce his twin brother to marry his 50 Danaides to Aegyptus' brood. The marriage went through, but on the wedding night, Danaus' daughters did as their father had instructed: they killed their cousin-husbands. Well... 49 of the 50 did. One didn't obey. Hypermnestra spared Lynceus -- excused for filial disobedience by the love goddess Aphrodite -- leaving a royal line in place in Argos. Danaus found new husbands for the 49 widows.
There were consequences of the murders. Either Athena helped them expiate the crime or they suffered eternal punishment, condemned to fill leaky jars, in Tartarus -- a kind of tourist spot for those mortal heroes who went on nekuias.
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Is this the end of the story?
Of course not.
A few generations later, through Io's great-great...great-granddaughter Danae (also impregnated by Zeus), the great hero Perseus became a descendant of this royal family. The burial place for the 49 murdered men was in Lerna, at the spot where Hercules later had to destroy the Learnean Hydra -- the monster with a never-ending series of heads. [See Hercules Labor 2.] Incidentally, if you read More You Should Know About Hercules, you'll learn that Hercules had his own confrontation with the 50 daughters of a king. This encounter was far more amicable.
Among other sources, see Carlos Parada's Danaids and the 1911 Encyclopedia article on Aeschylus' Suppliants.
