DANAUS, in Greek legend, son of Belus, king of Egypt, and twin-brother of Aegyptus. He was born at Chemmis (Panopolis) in Egypt, but having been driven out by his brother he fled with his 5o daughters to Argos, the home of his ancestress Io. The 5o sons of Aegyptus arrived in Argos, and Danaus was obliged to consent to their marriage with his daughters. But to each of these he gave a knife with injunctions to slay her husband on the marriage night. They all obeyed except Hypermestra, who spared Lynceus. She was brought to trial by her father, acquitted and afterwards married to her lover. Being unable to find suitors for the other daughters, Danaus offered them in marriage to the youths of the district who proved themselves victorious in racing contests (Pindar, Pythia, ix. 117).
According to another story Lynceus slew Danaus and his daughters and seized the throne of Argos (schol. on Euripides, Hecuba, 886). In the other world the Danaides were condemned to the endless task of filling with water a vessel which had no bottom. Crime and punishment alike have been variously ex plained by mythologists.
See articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyklopddie and W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; Campbell Bonner, in Harvard Studies, xiii. (19o2).