Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

356 Water-carrying and the Dana'ides

declaring that the land belonged to Hera1. Danaos therefore sent
his daughters to seek for water. One of them, Amymone by name,
while going on this errand, shot at a stag, but hit a sleeping
Satyr, and was saved from his embraces by the appearance of
Poseidon. To him she yielded; and he showed her the springs at
Lerna. Meantime the sons of Aigyptos came to Argos, demanding
the restoration of peace and a marriage with their fifty cousins.
Danaos, who distrusted these professions and bore a grudge on
account of his exile, agreed to the proposals and distributed the
damsels by lot. The names of grooms and brides are duly recorded ■
Danaos made the wedding-feast, but secretly supplied his daughters
with daggers. They, when their bridegrooms fell asleep, slew them
all, with a sole exception—that of Hypermnestra, who saved
Lynkeus for respecting her virginity3 and was for that reason
imprisoned by Danaos. The rest of his daughters buried the heads
of their bridegrooms at Lerna and performed funeral rites over the
bodies in front of the city4. They were purified themselves, at the
bidding of Zeus, by Athena and Hermes. Danaos su

bsequentlv

bestowed Hypermnestra upon Lynkeus, and offered his other
daughters as prizes in a gymnastic contest5.

The tale thus told is long and clearly composite. It is n
difficult to pick out certain parts of it and to bracket them as being
mythical accretions or embellishments of no central significance
The explanation of the Argive drought as due to Inachos' partisan
ship of Hera was hardly an original feature, at least of this story
The incident of Amymone, the Satyr, and Poseidon is an obvi°u

1 'A6Vi>&$ codd. C. G. Heyne cj."H>s, cp. Paus. 2. 15. 5. 2 Cp. Hyg-*j°5i

3 So also schol. //. 4. 171, schol. Pind. Nem. 10. 10. But schol. Eur. Hec 88 ^s
jihvfj roirwv ij 'Tirepuvrja-Tpa icpdcraro tov Avyictus, aivh rijs p.tt;ews SiaBeaiv ^a]^KQjassical
avrbv assigns a love-motive, which—as C. Bonner in Harvard Studies 1" ^epos
Philology 1902 xiii. 132 points out—is as old as Aisch. P.v. 865 f- idav Si valSi^ ^
tfAifet to fi-fi I Kretvai civevvov, k.t.X. and is further supported by the pleading of Ap

in Aisch. Dana'ides {frag. 44 Nauck2 ap. Athen. 600 a—d]. fZen°b'

4 Others agree that Danaos deposited the heads of the Aigyptiadai in Lerna

4. 86, Apostol. 10. 57, Arsen. viol. p. 334, Hesych. s.v. Aipvr\ khkwv, Phot. lex'*\ j'gyptos
dearHv, Souid. s.v. Aipvq BeaTwv). But, according to Paus. 1. 24. 2, the sons ot ^ ^e
were murdered at Lerna, and their wives cut off the heads to show their fathei a
deed was done. The headless trunks remained at Lerna, but the heads were »
tomb on the left of the road leading up to the Argive akripolis. 0,uakeS

5 So too Pind. Pyth. 9. 112 ff. with scholl. ad he, Paus. 3. 12. 2. Hyg-.M 0f it,
Lynkeus, after Danaos' death, present Abas, who had been the first to inform ^ ^
with the shield dedicated by Danaos to Hera. Lynkeus then consecrated th^J* fatber's
quinto quoqtie anno and known as ao~irh h "Apyec. The Dana'ides after

decease married Argive husbands.

6 Its proper setting is given by Paus. 2. 15. 5.