Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

DANAOS AND GELANOR. 2G9
adopted, we are told, by Kleisthenes. There were, however, CHAP.
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 Apollon ; 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.
rJ ,
What is the meaning and origin cf this strange tale? Origin of
With an ingenuity which must go far towards producing
myth "
conviction, Preller answers this question by a reference to
the physical geography of Argolis. Not much, he thinks,
can be done by referring the name Danaos to the root da, to
burn, which we find in Ahana, Dahana, and Daphne, 1
denoting the dry and waterless nature of the Argive soil.
This dryness, he remarks, is only superficial, the whole
territory being rich in wells or fountains which, it must be
specially noted, are in the myth assigned as the works of
Danaos, who causes them to be dug. These springs were
the object of a special veneration, and the fifty daughters of
Danaos are thus the representatives of the many Argive wells
or springs, and belong strictly to the ranks of water nymphs. 2
In the summer these springs may fail. Still later even
the beds of the larger streams, as of the Inachos or the
Kephisos, may be left dry, while in the rainy portion of the
year these Charadrai or Cheimarroi, winter flowing streams,
come down with great force and overflow their banks. Thus
the myth resolves itself into phrases which described ori-
1 The objection on the score of the 2 If the name Danaos itself denotes
quantity of the first syllable, which in water, it must be identified with Tanais,
Danaos is short, while in Daphne and Don, Donau, Tyne, Teign, Tone, and
dava £v\a, wood easily inflammable, it other forms of the Celtic and Slavonic
is long, is perhaps one on which too words for a running stream,
much stress should not be laid.
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