Water-carrying and the Danaides 357
excrescence1. The catalogue of one hundred names reads like a
didactic (Hesiodic?) addition2. And the suitors' race was not the
°nly method of rounding off the tale3.
But, subtractis subtrahendis, the residue of the myth has been
handled in more ways than one. F. G. Welcker4 took the Danaides
to be the fifty weeks of the year—an opinion that remained his own.
K. Schwenck5 had suggested that they were the fifty moons which
c°mposed the cycle of the Olympian festival; and this notion, since
with a little ingenuity it could be made to fit the case of other
fifties6, especially the fifty daughters of Endymion and Selene, and
eyen the fifty daughters of Thestios, found considerable favour and is
stlll hardly extinct7. Symbolism of another sort, topographical
rather than chronological, appears in the picturesque but highly
lmProbable view of L. Preller8. Making the most of a few particular
cases—Amymone, Physadeia9, Polydora10—he argued that all the
danaides were fountain-nymphs of the Argolid. The Aigyptiadai,
descendants of the mighty Aigyptos (that is, of the Nile), could then
e explained as torrents and rivers, which in winter rushed headlong
. H. D. Mttller Mythologie der griechischen Stammt Gottingen 1861 i. 50, C. Bonner
n &arvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 142—144.
They are interestingly discussed in Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. ii. 267 f. C. Robert
jjgUes that the list preserved by Apollodoros goes back to an epic source, probably to
^Slod (hence the epic character of the names, their epic prosody, often their Ionic dialect,
lheir suitability to hexameter verse. Peculiarly Hesiodic is their use of alliteration
na even rime), but that the list given by Hyg./ai. 170, which has only 22 or perhaps 23
as"^s in common with Apollodoros, is derived from some prose author (hence such names
3 le'nistagora, Demarchus, Demophile, Pamphilus).
suit ' B°nner in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 162 f. shows that the
(H°1S' ra°e 'Pind-' Paus., Apollod.) and the Danaides' punishment in the Underworld
hold8 ' ' belonS t0 distinct traditions which are not easy to reconcile.' Id. ib. p. 133
s that the latter version squares with that of schol. Eur. Hec. 886 (perhaps cp. Ov. her.
ty" "5—118), in which Lynkeus avenges his brothers by slaying Danaos and all the
dnaules exn^t v-----------
4 pc^except Hypermestra.
v o 'c^er Kleine Schrifteu zurgriechischen Literaturgeschichte Bonn 1867 v. 51
• Schwenck in the Rhein. Mus. 1856 x. 377 ff.
o.
0 vy t ui tne Kiiein. mus. ib^o x. 377 n.
anderer V- Roscner Die Zahl 30 in My thus, Kultus, Epos und Taktik der Hellenen und
XxXiu r \ °lk<r' bes' der Semiten (Abh. d. sdchs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1917
7 A5,^ruWe Myth. Lit. 1921 p. 283.
M'eIche'die 'dt Ha"db"<:h der griechischen Chronologie Jena 1888 p. 48 ff. ('Sagen,
*ii. j4i p Ftinfzigzahl der Monate personifiziren'), J. E. Harrison in the Class. Rev. 1898
8 L' pUppe Gr- My'h- Rel. p. 956 n. 5, F. M. Cornford in Harrison Themis'1 p. 231 f.
9 ^\T^\Gr'echiuhe MythoU>gu Leipzig 1854 ii. 33 ff.
for *iVa c' . llm- la*>acr. Pall. 47. Cp. schol. A. Eur. Phoen. 188 Qvoa (so W. Dindorf
Correct ,C°dIn Euphor. frag. 19 ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. "A<r£wros A. Meineke would
p- 402) "y to *wa«elax (Analecta Alexandria Berolini 1843 p. 55, but see ib.
^Cohy{afiA'y/ra^' 23 (Fra£- h'st- Gr- L 74 MUller) =frag. 8 (Frag.gr. Hist. i. 6t
See further n Ap' Rhod" '* 12I2> A"1- Lib- 32 <after Nikandros irepoioviihuiv a).
u- Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2642 f.
excrescence1. The catalogue of one hundred names reads like a
didactic (Hesiodic?) addition2. And the suitors' race was not the
°nly method of rounding off the tale3.
But, subtractis subtrahendis, the residue of the myth has been
handled in more ways than one. F. G. Welcker4 took the Danaides
to be the fifty weeks of the year—an opinion that remained his own.
K. Schwenck5 had suggested that they were the fifty moons which
c°mposed the cycle of the Olympian festival; and this notion, since
with a little ingenuity it could be made to fit the case of other
fifties6, especially the fifty daughters of Endymion and Selene, and
eyen the fifty daughters of Thestios, found considerable favour and is
stlll hardly extinct7. Symbolism of another sort, topographical
rather than chronological, appears in the picturesque but highly
lmProbable view of L. Preller8. Making the most of a few particular
cases—Amymone, Physadeia9, Polydora10—he argued that all the
danaides were fountain-nymphs of the Argolid. The Aigyptiadai,
descendants of the mighty Aigyptos (that is, of the Nile), could then
e explained as torrents and rivers, which in winter rushed headlong
. H. D. Mttller Mythologie der griechischen Stammt Gottingen 1861 i. 50, C. Bonner
n &arvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 142—144.
They are interestingly discussed in Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. ii. 267 f. C. Robert
jjgUes that the list preserved by Apollodoros goes back to an epic source, probably to
^Slod (hence the epic character of the names, their epic prosody, often their Ionic dialect,
lheir suitability to hexameter verse. Peculiarly Hesiodic is their use of alliteration
na even rime), but that the list given by Hyg./ai. 170, which has only 22 or perhaps 23
as"^s in common with Apollodoros, is derived from some prose author (hence such names
3 le'nistagora, Demarchus, Demophile, Pamphilus).
suit ' B°nner in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 162 f. shows that the
(H°1S' ra°e 'Pind-' Paus., Apollod.) and the Danaides' punishment in the Underworld
hold8 ' ' belonS t0 distinct traditions which are not easy to reconcile.' Id. ib. p. 133
s that the latter version squares with that of schol. Eur. Hec. 886 (perhaps cp. Ov. her.
ty" "5—118), in which Lynkeus avenges his brothers by slaying Danaos and all the
dnaules exn^t v-----------
4 pc^except Hypermestra.
v o 'c^er Kleine Schrifteu zurgriechischen Literaturgeschichte Bonn 1867 v. 51
• Schwenck in the Rhein. Mus. 1856 x. 377 ff.
o.
0 vy t ui tne Kiiein. mus. ib^o x. 377 n.
anderer V- Roscner Die Zahl 30 in My thus, Kultus, Epos und Taktik der Hellenen und
XxXiu r \ °lk<r' bes' der Semiten (Abh. d. sdchs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1917
7 A5,^ruWe Myth. Lit. 1921 p. 283.
M'eIche'die 'dt Ha"db"<:h der griechischen Chronologie Jena 1888 p. 48 ff. ('Sagen,
*ii. j4i p Ftinfzigzahl der Monate personifiziren'), J. E. Harrison in the Class. Rev. 1898
8 L' pUppe Gr- My'h- Rel. p. 956 n. 5, F. M. Cornford in Harrison Themis'1 p. 231 f.
9 ^\T^\Gr'echiuhe MythoU>gu Leipzig 1854 ii. 33 ff.
for *iVa c' . llm- la*>acr. Pall. 47. Cp. schol. A. Eur. Phoen. 188 Qvoa (so W. Dindorf
Correct ,C°dIn Euphor. frag. 19 ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. "A<r£wros A. Meineke would
p- 402) "y to *wa«elax (Analecta Alexandria Berolini 1843 p. 55, but see ib.
^Cohy{afiA'y/ra^' 23 (Fra£- h'st- Gr- L 74 MUller) =frag. 8 (Frag.gr. Hist. i. 6t
See further n Ap' Rhod" '* 12I2> A"1- Lib- 32 <after Nikandros irepoioviihuiv a).
u- Hofer in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 2642 f.