Danaus

Danaus (Δαναός, Danaós) was a king of Libya, as told in Greek myth and legend. He was said to have migrated into Greece with his people in ancient times (well-before the time of Homer I assume, because his name was sung then).

He was not himself divine, but his wife was the daughter of the river god (

His myth is a foundation legend of the ancient city of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus. In Homer’s Iliad, the Danaans (“tribe of Danaus”. “folk of Danaus”, the “people of Danaus”) was a term that was applied to the Greeks as a whole. At least around the time of Homer, the Mycenaean Greeks (probably) knew their people as the progeny of Danaus.

In the Iliad the terms “Argives” and “Danaans” are used very frequently to refer to the Greeks, especially to the collection of Greek peoples who opposed the Trojans during the Trojan War, whose number were heavily infused with Mycenaeans.

Family and Ancestry

Danaus, the king of Egypt, married one of the naiad, a daughter of the river god Nilus. Her name was Achiroe. [1]

He also had a twin brother, Aegypticus, who according to the Greek memory, was the king of Egypt. In addition to Aegypticus, “Euripides adds two others” to the brothers of Danaus, Cepheus and Phineus. [1]

(Cepheus was the King of Ethiopia, while Phineus was, at one time, the betrothed of Andromeda. [1])

Danaus had fifty daughters, know collectively as the Danaides. (There are many different accounts of their exact parentage, i.e. the number of mothers and their names.)

The Myths of Danaus

The travels of Danaus begin with his 50 daughters being married to the 50 sons of his twin brother, Aegypticus — against his will. On the advice of Athena, in order to escape with his daughter, Athena advised him to built a ship — the first ship that ever was — and leave Egypt behind

Resources

1. Wikipedia Editors. Danaus. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus. Accessed 03 Oct 2025.