Danaus
Egyptian-born king of Argos whose fifty daughters murdered their fifty husbands on their wedding night — all except one.
The Legend of Danaus
Forty-nine women killed their husbands with daggers on their wedding night — and the one who refused became the ancestress of Heracles. Danaus fled Egypt with his fifty daughters to escape his brother Aegyptus, whose fifty sons demanded to marry the Danaids. Danaus agreed but gave each daughter a dagger with instructions to kill her husband on the wedding night. Forty-nine obeyed. Only Hypermnestra spared her husband Lynceus because he respected her virginity. In the Underworld, the forty-nine murderesses were condemned to fill leaky jars with water eternally. Hypermnestra's line produced Perseus, Heracles, and the Argive royal house. The myth gives the Greeks one of their oldest names — Danaans.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Aegyptus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A mythological king with fifty sons who demanded marriage to the fifty daughters of his brother Danaus, precipitating one of the most infamous mass killings in Greek mythology
Lynceus of Argos
🗡 heroSight, Survival, Revenge
Danaid husband with supernaturally sharp sight, sole male survivor of the massacre of the fifty sons of Aegyptus.
Pandion
🗡 herokingship
King of Athens who married off his daughters Procne and Philomela, both of whom suffered terribly at the hands of Tereus.
Hypermnestra
🗡 heromercy
The only one of the fifty Danaids who refused to murder her husband Lynceus on their wedding night.
Danaids
🗡 heropunishment
The fifty daughters of Danaus, forty-nine of whom murdered their husbands and were condemned to fill leaky vessels in Tartarus forever.
Megara
🗡 heroNone recorded
First wife of Heracles, given to him as a reward and later killed in his madness
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Oenomaus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A king of Pisa who killed the suitors of his daughter Hippodamia in rigged chariot races until Pelops defeated him through trickery and divine favour
Ixion
🗡 heroFirst murderer and first sinner
Ixion was the first human to murder a kinsman and the first to attempt seduction of a goddess — bound forever to a spinning wheel of fire.
Niobe
🗡 heroQueen punished for boasting about her children
A queen who boasted that her fourteen children made her superior to the goddess Leto, who had only two. Apollo and Artemis killed all fourteen, and Niobe wept until she turned to stone.
Icarius
🗡 heroNone recorded
A legendary king of Sparta and father of Penelope who tried to prevent his daughter from leaving with Odysseus after her marriage
Neleus
🗡 herokingship
Son of Poseidon and Tyro, founder of Pylos, father of Nestor, killed by Heracles for refusing purification.