Danaus

Danaus is twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Belus, a king of Egypt. Danaus has fifty daughters, the Danaides, and his twin brother, Aegyptus, had fifty sons.

• Gender – Male
• Race – Human
• Occupation –
• Religion – Hellenic Pantheon 
• Allies – King Pelasgus
• Enemies – King Aegyptus
• Abode/ Base of operations – Egypt/ Argos
• Nationality – Egyptian
• Languages – Greek/ Egyptian
• Alignment –
• Affiliation (s) –
• Significant others – 50 Daughters (the Danaides)

Aegyptus commanded that his sons marry the Danaides. Danaus elected to flee instead, and to that purpose he built a ship. In it he fled to Argos, to which he was connected by his descent from Io, the maid wooed by Zeus and turned into a heifer and pursued by Hera until she found asylum in Egypt. So in a sense this was a homecoming for the sailor from Egypt. Argos at the time was ruled by King Pelasgus the Danaides asked him for protection when they arrived. Protection was granted after a vote by the Argives.

When Aegyptus and his fifty sons arrived to take the Danaides, Danaus gave them, to spare the Argives the pain of a battle. However, he instructed his daughters to kill their husbands on their wedding night. Forty-nine followed through, but one, Hypermnestra (or Amymone, the “blameless” Danaid) refused because her husband, Lynceus, honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with his disobedient daughter and threw her to the Argive courts. Aphrodite intervened and saved her. (Lynceus later killed Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers). Lynceus and Hypermnestra then began a dynasty of Argive kings (the Danaan Dynasty).

The Danaides were punished in Tartarus by being forced to carry water through a jug to fill a bath and wash off their sins, but the jugs were actually sieves, so the water always leaked out.

The remaining forty-nine Danaides had their grooms chosen by a common mythic competition: a foot-race was held and the order in which the potential Argive grooms finished decided their brides (compare the myth of Atalanta).