InGreek mythology,Aegyptus orÆgyptus (/ɪˈdʒɪptəs/;Ancient Greek:Αἴγυπτος) was a legendary king ofancient Egypt.[1] He was a descendant of the princessIo through his fatherBelus, and of the river-godNilus as both the father ofAchiroe, his mother and as a great, great-grandfather on his father's side.
Aegyptos was the son of King Belus[2] of Egypt andAchiroe, anaiad daughter ofNile,[3] or ofSida,[4] eponym ofSidon. He was the twin brother ofDanaus, king ofLibya whileEuripides adds two others,Cepheus, king ofEthiopia andPhineus, betrothed ofAndromeda. He may be the same or different from another Aegyptus who was called the son ofZeus andThebe.[5][AI-generated source?]
Aegyptus fathered fifty sons by different women: six of whom by a woman of royal blood calledArgyphia; ten by anArabian woman; seven by aPhoenician woman; three byTyria; twelve by thenaiadCaliadne; six byGorgo and lastly another six byHephaestine.[6] According toHippostratus, Aegyptus had these progeny by a single woman calledEurryroe, daughter of Nilus.[7] In some accounts, Aegyptus consorted withIsaie while Danaus marriedMelia, these two women were daughters of their uncleAgenor, king ofTyre, and of their possible sister,Damno who was described as the daughter of Belus.[8]
Aegyptus ruled Arabia and conquered nearby country ruled by people called Melampodes/Melampods and called it by his name, Egypt. Aegyptus fathered fifty sons, who were all but one murdered by forty nine of the fifty daughters of Aegyptus' twin brother,Danaus, eponym of theDanaïdes.
Ascholium on a line inEuripides,Hecuba 886, reverses these origins, placing the twin brothers at first inArgolis, whence Aegyptus was expelled and fled to the land that was named after him. In the more common version,[9] Aegyptus commanded that his fifty sons marry the fiftyDanaïdes, and Danaus with his daughters fled toArgos, ruled byPelasgus[10] or byGelanor, whom Danaus replaced. When Aegyptus and his sons arrived to take the Danaïdes, Danaus relinquished them, to spare the Argives the pain of a battle; however, he instructed his daughters to kill their husbands on their wedding night. Forty-nine followed through, but one,Hypermnestra ("greatly wooed"), refused, because her husband,Lynceus the "lynx-man", honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with his disobedient daughter and threw her to the Argive courts.Aphrodite intervened and saved her. Lynceus and Hypermnestra founded the lineage of Argive kings, aDanaid Dynasty.
In some versions, Lynceus later slew Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers, and the Danaïdes were punished in the underworld by being forced to carry water with a jug with holes, or a sieve, so that the water always leaked out.
The story of Danaus and his daughters, and the reason for their flight from marriage, provided the theme ofAeschylus'The Suppliants.
