Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/956

Rh 938 DANAUS. Pindar mentions only forty-eiglit Danaides as hav- ing obtained husbands in this manner, for H yperm- restra and Amymone are not included, since the former was already married to Lynceus and the latter to Poseidon. Pausanias (vii. 1. § 3. Comp. iii. 12. § 2; Herod, ii. 98) mentions, that Auto- mate and Scaea were married to Architeles and Archander, the sons of Achaeus. According to the Scholiast on Euripides {Hecuh. 886), the Da- naides were killed by Lynceus together with their father. Notwithstanding their purification men- tioned in the earlier writers, later poets relate that the Danaides were punished for their crime in Hades by being compelled everlastingly to pour water into a vessel full of holes. (Ov. Met. iv. 46'2, Herovl. xiv. ; Horat. Curm. iii. 11. 25 ; Tibull. i. 3. 79 ; Hj'gin. Fab. 1 68 ; Serv. ad Aen. x. 497.) Strabo (viii.p. 371) and others relate, that Danaiis or the Danaides provided Argos with water, and for this reason four of the latter were worshipped at Argos as divinities ; and this may possibly be the foundation of the story about the punishment of the Danaides. Ovid calls them by the name of the Belides, from their grandfather, Belus ; and Herodotus (ii. 171), following the tales of the Egyptians, says, that they brought the mysterips of Demeter Thesmophoros from Egypt to Pelopon- nesus, and that the Pelasgian women there learned the mysteries from them. [L. S.] DANAUS (Aaj/a($s), a son of Belus and An- chinoe, and a grandson of Poseidon and Libya. He was brother of Aegyptus, and father of fifty daughters, and the mythical ancestor of the Danai. (Apollod. ii. 1, § 4, &c.) According to the com- mon story he was a native of Chemnis, in the Thebais in Upper Egypt, and migrated from thence into Greece. (Herod, ii. 91.) Behis had given Danaiis Libya, while Aegj'ptus had obtained Arabia. Danaiis had reason to think that the sons of his brother were plotting against him, and fear or the advice of an oracle (Eust;ith. ad Horn. p. 37), induced him to build a large ship and to embark with his daughters. On his flight he first landed at Rhodes, where he set up an image of Athena Lindia. According to the story in Hero- dotus, a temple of Athena was built at Lindus by the daughters of Danaus, and according to Strabo (xiv. p. 654) Tlepolemus built the towns of Lin- dus, lalysus and Cameirus, and called them thus after the names of three Danaides. From Rhodes Danaiis and his daughters sailed to Peloponnesus, and landed at a place near Lerna, which was after- wards called from this event Apobathmi. (Paus. ii. 38. § 4.) At Argos a dispute arose between Danaiis and Gelanor about the government, and after many discussions the people deferred the de- cision of the question to the next day. At its dawn a wolf rushed among the cattle and killed one of the oxen. This occurrence was to the Argives an event which seemed to announce to them in what manner the dispute should terminate, and Danaiis was accordingly mjide king of Argos. Out of gratitude he now built a sanctuary of Apollo Lycius, who, as he believed, had sent the wolf. (Paus. ii. 19. § 3. Comp. Serv. ad Aen. iv. 377, who relates a different story.) Danaiis also erected two wooden statues of Zeus and Artemis, and dedicated his shield in the sanctuary of Hera. (Paus. ii. 19. § 6; Hygin. Fab. 170.) He is further said to have built the acropolis of Argos and to have provided the place Avitli water by dig- DAPHNAEUS. ging wells. (Strab. i. p. 23, viii. p. 371 ; Eus- tath. ad Horn. p. 461.) The sons of Aegyptus in the mean time had followed their uncle to Argos ; they assured him of their peaceful sentiments and sued for the hands of his daughters. Danaiis still mistrusted them and remembered the cause of his flight from his country ; however he gave them his daughters and distributed them among his ne- phews by lot. But all the brides, with the excep- tion of Hypermnestra murdered their husbands by the command of their father. [Danaides.] Iu aftertimes the Argives were called Danai. Whe^ ther Danaiis died a natural death, or whether he was killed by Lynceus, his son-in-law, is a point on which the various traditions are not agreed, but he is sixid to have been buried at Argos, and his tomb in the agora of Argos was shewn there as late as the time of Pausanias. (ii. 20. § 4 ; Strab. viii. p. 371.) Statues of Danaus, Hypermnestra and Lynceus were seen at Delphi by Pausanias. (x. 10. § 2.) [L. S.] DA'PHITAS or DA'PHIDAS (Aat/ji'ras or Aa4)(Sos), a grammarian and epigrammatist of Tel- messus, of whom Suidas sjxys, that he wrote against Homer, accusing him of falsehood in saying that the Athenians went to the Trojan war. He was a reviler of all men, and did not spare even tiie gods. He put a trick upon the Delphian oracle, as he thought, by inquiring whether he should find his horse. The answer was, that he should find it soon. Upon this, he declared that he had never had a horse, much less lost one. But the oracle proved to be true, for on his return home he was seized by Attains, the king of Pergamus, and thrown headlong from a rock, the name of which was tTTTroy, horse. (Said. s. v. Aa(piTas ; comp. Cic. de Fat. 3 ; Val. Max. i. 8, ext. § S.) Strabo, in speaking of Magnesia, mentions a moun- tain over against it, named Thorax, on which it was sjiid that Daphitas was crucified for reviling the kings in two verses, which he preserves. He also mentions the oracle, but, of course, as playing upon the word 6cSpa^ instead of '/7r7ros(xiv. p. 647). The distich preserved by Strabo is also included in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. iiL p. 330; Jacobs, ii. p. 39.) [P. S.] DAPHNAEA and DAPHNAEUS (Ao^.'o.'a and Aa<pucuos), surnames of Artemis and Apollo* respectively, derived from 5d<pyn, a laurel, which was sacred to Apollo. In the case of Artemis it is uncertain why she bore that surname, and it was perhaps merely an allusion to her statue being made of laurel-wood (Paus. iii. 24. § 6 ; Strab. xvi. p. 750 ; Philostr. Vit. ApoUon. i. 16 ; Eu- trop. vi. 1 1 ; Justin, xv. 4.) [L. S.] DAPHNAEUS (Aa(pua7os), a Syracusan, one of the leaders of the popular party in that city , after the death of Diodes. He was appointed to command the troops sent by the Syracusans, toge- ther with their Sicilian and Italian allies, to the relief of Agrigentum, when it was besieged by the Carthaginians, B. c. 406. He at first defeated the force despatched by Himilco to oppose his advance, but was unable to avert the fall of Agrigentum, and consequently shared in the unpopularity caused by that event, and was deposed, together with the other generals, on the motion of Dionysius. As soon as the latter had established himself in the supreme command, he summoned an assembly of the people, and procured the execution of Daph- naeus together with his late colleague, Deraarchua.