Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

\QS MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK
II.
Hypermnestra
and Lynkeus.
harmony and concord than those of many other pairs of twins
in Aryan story. These sons of Belos marry many wives,
and while Aigyptos has fifty sons, Danaos has fifty daughters,
numbers which must be compared with the fifty daughters
of Nereus or the fifty children of Endymion and Asterodia.
The action of the story begins with the tyranny of Aigyptos
and his sons over Danaos and his daughters. By the aid of
Athene, Danaos builds a fifty-oared 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 Poseidon. He at
once sends his daughters to seek for water ; and Amymone
(the blameless), chancing to hit a Satyr while aiming at
a stag, is rescued from his hot pursuit by Poseidon whose
bride she becomes and who calls up for her the never-failing
fountain of Lerna. 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 Dana-
ides. 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 Lerna,
while they placed their bodies at the gates of the city : from
this crime they were purified by Athene 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.
Danaos had now to find husbands for his eight and forty
daughters, Hypermnestra being still married to Lynkeus
and Amymone to Poseidon. This he found no easy task,
but at length he succeeded through the device afterwards
1 With this number we may compare the fifty daughters of Daksha in Hindu
mythology, and of Thestios, and the fifty sons of Pallas and Priam.