Danaus

• king of Libya
• founder of Argos
• father of 50 daughters (Danaids)
• brother of Aegyptus

father of Danaus

Cosmic Origins

Danaids

Waterhouse, 1903

Suppliants

sometime 470(?) - 459 BCE

Supplication

• Laius, Oedipus, Seven Against Thebes, Sphinx
• The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides, Proteus
• Edonoi, Bassaridae, Neoniskoi, Lykurgos
  
  Suspected:

• Egyptians, Suppliants, Danaids, Amymone

• (Iliad) Myrmidons, Nereids, Phrygians Thalamapoioi

• (Odyssey) Psychagogoi, Penelope, Ostologoi, Circe

• (Aethiopis) Cares, Memnon, Psychostasia

• (Ajax) Decision of Arms, Thracians, Salaminians

• (Dionysus) Semele, Xantriai, Pentheus, Trophoi

• (Adrastus) Eleusinians, Argives, Epigonoi, Nemea

• (Argonauts) Lemnians, Hypsipyle, Kabeiroi, Argo

Tetralogogies = 3 tragedies + satyr play

– Egyptians

And then will come the brilliant light of the sun, and I will graciously awake the bridal couples, enchanting them with song with a choir of youths and maidens

– Danaids, fr. 43

The holy Heaven passionately desires to penetrate the earth, and passionate desire takes hold of Earth for union with Heaven. Rain falls from the brimming fountains of heaven and makes Earth conceive, and she brings forth for mortals grazing for their flocks, cereals to sustain their life, and the fruit of the trees: by the wedlock of the rain she comes to her fulfilment. Of this, I am in part the cause.

– Conrad Anker

APHRODITE:

fr. 44

Amymone and Poseidon

Digression

Ultimate Nerdification: The most important Aeschylean papyrus fragment of all time

P. Oxy 2256

fr. 3

Ai]sxulo[s

Dan[aid]es Amu[mone

Deu[teron] Sophoklh[s

epi a[r or epi A[r

Busiris

Narmer Palette

c. 3100 BCE