#hypermnestra

Amymone and Hypermnestra, daughters of Danaus

There is another road, that leads to Lyrcea from the gate at the Ridge. The story is that to this place came Lynceus, being the only one of the fifty brothers to escape death, and that on his escape he raised a beacon here. Now to raise the beacon was the signal he had agreed with Hypermnestra to give if he should escape Danaus and reach a place of safety. She also, they say, lighted a beacon on Larisa as a sign that she too was now out of danger. For this reason the Argives hold every year a beacon festival. (Pausanias 2.25.4)

Lynceus was the son of Aegyptus, who was the twin brother of Danaus. Danaus had fifty daughters, while Aegyptus had fifty sons including Lynceus. Aegyptus commanded that his sons marry Danaus' and Danaus fled to Argos. When Aegyptus and his sons arrived to take the women, Danaus gave them to spare the men 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 refused because her husband, Lynceus, honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with his disobedient daughter and threw her to the courts. Aphrodite intervened and saved her, and Lynceus killed Danaus. Lynceus and Hypermnestra then began a dynasty of Argive king. Her sisters were punished in Tartarus by being forced to carry water through a jug with holes, or a sieve, so the water always leaked out. X