 - Yes, date unknown
-
| Name |
Aegyptus |
| Suffix |
King of Egypt |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Yes, date unknown |
| Notes |
- «b»http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegyptus
«/b»In «u»Greek mythology «/u», «b»Aegyptus«/b» («u»Greek «/u»: Aígyptos) is a descendant of the «u»heifer «/u» maiden, «u»Io «/u», and the river-god «u»Nilus «/u», and was a king in «u»Egypt «/u».«u»[1]«/u» Aegyptos was the son of «u»Belus [2]«/u» and «u»Achiroe «/u», a «u»naiad «/u» daughter of Nile. Aegyptus fathered fifty sons, who were all but one murdered by the fifty daughters of Aegyptus' twin brother, «u»Danaus «/u», eponym of the «u»Danaans «/u», a name for the «u»Mycenaean Greeks «/u». The Aegyptus of Greek myth is not a genuinely Egyptian figure, but a figment of «u»Egypt in the European imagination «/u».
A «u»scholium «/u» on a line in «u»Euripides «/u», «u»«i»Hecuba «/u»«/i» 886, reverses these origins, placing the twin brothers at first in «u»Argolis «/u», whence Aegyptus was expelled and fled to the land that was named after him. In the more common version,«u»[3]«/u» Aegyptus commanded that his fifty sons marry the fifty «u»Danaides «/u», and Danaus with his daughters fled to «u»Argos «/u», ruled by «u»Pelasgus [4]«/u» or by «u»Gelanor «/u», whom Danaus replaced. When Aegyptus and his sons arrived to take the Danaides, 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, «u»Hypermnestra «/u» ("greatly wooed"), refused, because her husband, «u»Lynceus «/u» the "lynx-man", honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with his disobedient daughter and threw her to the Argive courts. «u»Aphrodite «/u» intervened and saved her. Lynceus and Hypermnestra founded the lineage of Argive kings, a Danaan dynasty.
In some versions, Lynceus later slew Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers, and the Danaides were punished in the underworld by being forced to carry water through 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 of «u»Aeschylus «/u»' «u»«i»The Supplicants «/u»«/i».
In the second or third century AD, «u»Antoninus Liberalis [5]«/u» tells of another «b»Aegyptos«/b», who was a young man of «u»Thessaly «/u». He was the companion of Neophron, but the lover of Timandra, Neophron's mother; he became the victim of Neophron's revenge, when Neophron arranged a night-time substitution, so that Aegyptos committed involuntary incest with his mother, Bules. «u»Zeus «/u» transformed Egyptos and Neophron into eagles and Timandra into a kite. Many of the transformations in Antoninus' prose compilation are found nowhere else, and some may simply be inventions of Antoninus; this story combines several themes of «u»Hellenistic Romance«/u». The placement of an «i»Aegyptus«/i» in Thessaly is inexplicable.
«b»Notes
«u»1. ^«/u»«/b» Egypt took its name from his, according to «u»folk etymology «/u» (see the article «u»«i»Copt «/u»«/i»); thus for «u»Euripides «/u», in his tragedy «i»Helen«/i», Aegyptus has become Egypt itself: "Proteus, while he lived, was King here, ruling the whole of Aigyptos from his palace on the island of Pharos."
«u»«b»2. ^«/u»«/b» "«i»Belos«/i»", "lord", is simply a Hellenized rendition of «u»Baal «/u», a Semitic term, not an Egyptian one.
«u»«b»3. ^«/u»«/b» According to pseudo-Apollodorus, «u»«i»Bibliotheke «/u»«/i» 2.1.4-5.
«u»«b»4. ^«/u»«/b» An «u»eponym «/u» for «u»autochthonous «/u» peoples, here represented as pre-Hellenic.
«u»«b»5. ^«/u»«/b» Antoninus Liberalis, «i»Metamorphoses,«/i» v.
- (Research):http://fabpedigree.com/s048/f657752.htm
|
| Person ID |
I61423 |
Glenn Cook Family |
| Last Modified |
26 Jul 2015 |
|
|
