Danaus comes to Argos in the 1st Ship. A.D. 2529.
WAG 7668
Information
This is part of a group of drawings by British artist and book illustrator Edward Francis Burney, depicting scenes from Greek and Roman history and mythology.
Danaus was the son of Belius, King of Egypt. Danaus' twin brother, Aegyptus, drove him and his daughters, the fifty Danaids, out of Egypt to Argus. This composition shows their arrival. They were soon followed by Aegyptus and his fifty sons, and when Aegyptus demanded his sons be allowed to marry Danaus's daughters, Danaus demanded that the brides slay their husbands on their wedding night. All obeyed him except Hypermnestra, who spared her husband, Lynceus. For their murderous acts the Danaids were condemned to fill bottomless vessels with water. The murder of the sons of Aegyptus is said to represent the drying up of the rivers and springs of Argolis in summer.