ABSTRACT
Refusing to be deterred by the flight of their cousins, the sons of Aigyptos soon arrived in Argos to press their suit. They assumed a conciliatory tone, inviting Danaos to abandon his enmity and consent to a union between the two families; but he mistrusted their intentions, and bore them a grudge in addition because he had been forced to flee from his original kingdom. So he mollified them by pretending to agree to the marriages, and cast lots to assign each of his daughters to a specific bridegroom; when the time came for the wedding, however, he secretly provided his daughters with daggers and instructed them to kill their husbands while they were asleep on their wedding-night. They all obeyed him with the sole exception of Hypermnestra (or Hypermestra), who spared her husband Lynkeus (see below).46
