page_title: Danaus
section_title: Murdered bridegrooms
hierarchical_section_title: Danaus / Mythology / Murdered bridegrooms
caption_attribution_description: English: The Danaides kill their husbands. Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). Cote&#160;: Français 874, folio 170v. Français&#160;: Danaïdes tuant leurs maris. Miniature extraite des Epistres d'Ovide (Héroïdes), traduction d'Octavien de Saint-Gelais, 1496-1498.
context_page_description: In Greek mythology, Danaus was the king of Libya. His myth is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus. In Homer's Iliad, "Danaans" and "Argives" commonly designate the Greek forces opposed to the Trojans.
context_section_description: 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, and subsequently buried the heads of their bridegrooms in Lerna; but one, Hypermnestra, 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 and Hypermnestra then began a dynasty of Argive kings (the Danaid Dynasty). Some sources relate that Amymone, the "blameless" Danaid, and/or Bryce (Bebryce) also spared their husbands.
caption: The Danaides kill their husbands, miniature by Robinet Testard.
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