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)

358 Water-carrying and the Danaides

like importunate suitors, but in summer sank low or were dried up
altogether, their head-waters cut off by the local nymphs. Thus
decapitated they were buried in the Lernaean marsh, where alone
moisture yet lingered. Preller's explanation, accepted as sound by
Bernhard1, N. Wecklein2, O. Waser3, etc. and described as 'Ein
geistvoller Erklarungsvorschlag' by C. Robert4, is of course open to
serious objections, which have been forcibly put by C. Bonner5 and
G. A. Megas6. Nor is the case materially strengthened, if, with
V. Henry7, we pronounce the Danaides to have been rain-goddesses.

These attempts at explanation, however ingenious, must be dis-
carded. There is more to be said for the folk-tale comparisons made
by L. Laistner and C. Bonner. Laistner8, who regarded the race of
the Argive suitors as the most important feature of the myth and
combined it with the endless labour of the Danaides, took the whole
story to exemplify the following mythical formula:' A water-carrying
field fairy is freed from an enchantment by a man who, in order to
accomplish her deliverance, has to perform some feat involving
bravery, strength, or endurance, as well as mortal danger in case of
failure9.' The Danaides are enchanted maidens, nymphs of the rain
or the dew. The endless water-carrying is the magic spell. The sons
of Aigyptos fail to free them, and lose their own lives in consequence-
Now Laistner's comparison is not only forced and far-fetched, but
as C. Bonner10 points out—definitely vitiated by .taking for
original core of the myth two different and alternative endings to

1 Bernhard in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 950. . se

2 N. Wecklein in the Sitzungsber. d. kais. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-W8'-

1893 ii. 397 ff. _ -^andi11

0 O. Waser 'Danaos und die Danaiden' in the Archivf. Rel. 1899 ii- 47 3 '
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iv. 2087 ff., 2094 ff. , y^y

4 Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. ii. 266. Cp. H.J. Rose .-4 Handbook of'Greek
London 1928 p. 284 : ' The persistent connexion of the Danaides with water makes 1
unlikely that they are in reality fountain-nymphs.' t]iat

5 C. Bonner in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 146 ff- n°'^S 377-
'the use of/ce0aXi?, meaning source, is very scantily attested' (Hdt. 4. 9i> CP- R^ gives,
Latin caput and Modern Greek /cc0oXdpi are quoted in support); that Paus. 2. *f" i^^ra
apparently as a genuine Argive myth, a very different account of the decapitatl0^es n£)t
p. 356 n. 4); that the alleged invention of wells by Danaos or his daughters ^
prove the latter to have been spring-spirits; that the numeral fifty is not neceSjhe ,-jver
indication of a nymph-like nature, but rather suggestive of a folk-tale family; th* etc.
of Egypt, though known to Homer as Afyinrros, is already NetXos in Hes. theog- 3 jxV;;i.

6 G. A. Megas 'Die Saga von Danaos und den Danaiden' in Hermes 19B0
415—428 (see infra Addenda).

7 V. Henry in the Rev. Et. Gr. 1892 v. 284—289.

8 L. Laistner Das Rcitsel der Sphinx Berlin 1889 i. 283—292.

9 C. Bonner in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1902 xiii. 161-

10 Id. ib. p. 162 f.