THE DANAID TETRALOGY

The Suppliants (Hiketides) is the only play which survives, although its text is not at all certain in various places. It seems likely that it was the first play in the trilogy. I prefer to call it The Asylum Seekers - as the concept of supplication is an unfamiliar one. The Danaids share with contemporary refugees fears concerning sexual abuse, misogyny, racism and - as it turns out - political deception.

The Egyptians. Was probably the second in the trilogy - though with a totally different reconstruction from mine, a case could be made for putting it first. One line survives, which - because it contains the word Egyptians - could be from this play.

The Danaids was definitely the third play, (as we know from P Oxy 2256). Two fragments survive - one of 3 lines, and a most important one of 7 lines, preserved by Athenaeus (13.600b). He helpfully tells us that the speaker was Aphrodite - and the speech he quotes seems to me to be crucial to the interpretation of the whole trilogy. It must have come towards the end of Danaids, and appears to be a defence of love as the fundamental principle of the universe.

Amymone is attested as the satyr-play specifically by P Oxy 2256. Its three small fragments give no clue to the plot - except that Poseidon is a character - and he mentions marriage to a female character.

The sequence of events:

In Suppliants:

• Fifty girls (the suppliants) arrive in Argos with their father Danaos (whose authority is unquestioned) to escape enforced marriage in Egypt with their 50 cousins, son of Danaus' brother Aegyptos.
    
• The refugees are welcomed by the king (Pelasgos) and people of Argos , and Danaos negotiates sanctuary for them, in a place protected by the gods (including Zeus), and guaranteed by the king and the people.
  
  
• A terrifying force of Egyptians lands and tries brutally to compel the girls to get onto the ships to be taken back to Egypt.
  
  
• King Pelasgos intervenes to thwart the abduction, despite the Egyptian threat to launch a full-scale war. Pelasgos and the Argive people will safeguard the refugees - and welcome them into their homes. Danaos is given a bodyguard. He tells his daughters to be on their guard against the lustful young men of Argos.
  
  
• As the threat of war looms, the young Argives question the Danaids' rejection of Aphrodite.

In Egyptians

• Lynkeus, eldest son of Aegyptos (Chorus leader) describes how the proposed marriage between Aegyptos' sons and Danaus' daughters was sabotaged by Danaus. Their "escape" to Argos was part of Danaus' scheme to reclaim his ancestral throne (through descent from Io, daughter of Inachus).
  
  
• Danaus, with his Argive bodyguard, meets with Lynkeus, and refuses to hand over the girls. A battle is imminent.
  
  
• A messenger brings news to Lynkeus that the Pelasgos, king of Argos, has been killed, and his army has retreated back to the city., which is now besieged by the Egyptians.
  
  
• Aegyptos reveals he intends to negotiate with Argos, now that King Pelasgos, who was willing to fight to [protect the refugees, is dead. Danaus arrives, announcing that he's the new king, and convinces Aegyptos that he's changed his mind about the marriage, thanks to a dream in which Io regrets shunning Aphrodite, and refusing Zeus. Together the brothers plan the wedding.
  
  
• The men are to choose their brides in the order that they finish in a race. Lynkeus is very suspicious of Danaus' motives, and a duel is about to be fought when Inachus, the river god, father of Io and ancestor of all parties, emerges to prophesy the future: the families will unite and give rise to a glorious dynasty in Argos. Lynkeus departs for the Games, hoping to win and have first choice of bride.
  
  
• Danaus hints that his plan for the wedding is not what it might seem, Aegyptos reveals he plans to conquer Argos, once his sons are inside. Outwardly though all is well, as Lynkeus reveals he's chosen Hypermestra. The happy couples process by torchlight into the town, where each daughter has prepared to receive her husband.

In Danaids

• Pamphile. the wedding-planner (nympheutria) describes the horrors she found in the brides' bedrooms. The husbands butchered, the wives missing.
  
  
• The Danaids revel in their actions, which they see as deserved punishment. The are proud of their obedience to their father - but one of them is missing.
  
  
• Danaos announces that the search is on for Hypermestra and her husband. She will be put to death, for disloyalty and disobedience..
  
  
• Hypermestra appears of her own free will, and confronts Danaus and her sisters. They applaud her death sentence, and Danaus leads her away.
  
  
• Lynkeus enters with Argive soldiers. He reveals that Hypermestra has been rescued and Danaus has fled. He's been chosen as king. He explains why Hypermestra spared him. He announces that the Danaids will be put on trial and asks the gods to supply a fair judge.
  
  
• The trial: Pothos (Desire) , son of Aphrodite prosecutes - the sons of Aegyptos felt normal sexual desire which was thwarted by the Danaids, who disrespected Aphrodite. Peitho (Persuasion), daughter of Aphrodite defends. Love requires persuasion along with desire: the Aegyptiads did not attempt to persuade the girls, but used threats and force. Hypermestra appears as a surprise witness for the defence. making a case that both parties insulted Aphrodite - though the Danaids are still guilty of murder.
  
  
• A jury of Argive elders unanimously finds the Danaids guilty. They still hope to be rescued by their father, but news arrives that he has been murdered. The jury unanimously vote for the death penalty.
  
  
• As the girls are being taken away, there is the sudden dramatic appearance of Aphrodite herself in her golden chariot. They are guilty, she says, of putting obedience to their father ahead of Love, the universal principle on which the world and life itself depend. They must find husbands, and in recognition of their crime they must honour Demeter, at a new women's festival , the Thesmophoria. As the girls move into the audience to find husbands, they acknowledge that Aphrodite is a greater power than Zeus.

Amymone

Aeschylus' satyr-plays (although not one survives) chose, it seems, to dramatise an event which took place earlier in the myth. In the case of Amymone, the event is one in the early history of Argos, soon after the arrival of the Danaids - and is in fact chronologically incompatible with Suppliants. Hera and Poseidon both laid claim to Argos: its king, Inachus, awarded it to Hera. Poseidon, in a sulk, dried up all the streams and rivers. Amymone has been sent out with her pitcher to find water somewhere. She finds some unruly Satyrs, and eventually Poseidon, and an intriguing relationship develops, leading to the restoration of the water-supply.

 

The Reconstructions

A set of four plays by Aeschylus won first prize at the Great Dionysia in Athens, most probably in 462, where he beat Sophocles into second place. Only the first play survives: The Suppliant Women (Hiketides). A handful of fragments of the other three plays exist, only one of which is significant (Fr 44) It is a quotation from a speech by Aphrodite in the third play, The Danaids, in which she says:

The sacred sky is mad with love and longs
To violate the virgin earth, the earth in turn
Wants desperately to feel herself possessed,
A wedded copulation. Then the rain
Falls, spray from gushing springs in heaven,
To impregnate the earth, and she gives birth
To pasture for the herds that feed mankind,
To grain that sustains life, to fruiting trees.
Togetherness and moisture make all this
Occur. I am responsible, in charge.

The The challenge was to write two plays, leading on organically from The Suppliants. In which this passage presumably must play an important part. The only other essential evidence is in the telling of the myth of Io in Prometheus Bound, probably not by Aeschylus, and certainly produced after this tetralogy -an earlier play.

There are many references to the Danaid myth in later Greek and Latin literature. We can't know if any of them were based on reading, misreading, remembering or misremembering the missing plays of Aeschylus (The Egyptians and The Danaids). I looked at all the references (vase paintings included), and picked out those that seemed to me could have been part of Aeschylus' telling of the story, but making assumptions that some writers could have misunderstood or deliberately changed or actually invented items. Some things, like the Danaids' punishment in Hades, are accepted as additions to the story well after the time of Aeschylus. A collection of the references left me with these questions, some of which proved useful in my reconstructions.

Did Danaus build the first ever boat?
Did he and his daughters stop in Rhodes on the way to Argos?
Was there a water shortage when they arrived, necessitating the girls going out with pitchers?
Why did Danaos not want his daughters marrying his brother's sons?
Did Danaus claim his life was threatened by a marriage of daughter and nephew?
Was there an oracle saying Aegyptos wanted to kill the Danaids?
Did Aegyptos come to Argos to support his sons?
What happened to Pelasgos? Who was king Gelanor?
How and when did Danaos become king of Argos?
Why did the Greeks call themselves Danaans?
Why did Danaos change his mind about the marriage?
Did Danaos have Games to allot his daughters to their husbands?
What role was played by the gods, especially Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite and Artemis?
Did the Danaids decapitate their husbands?
Did they throw the heads into the lake at Lerna?
Why did Hypermestra not kill Lynkeus?
When and how did Danaos lose the kingship? When and how did he die?
How did Lynkeus become king?
Was there a trial? If so, who was accused? Of what?
Did the Danaids bring the Thesmophoria from Egypt to the Peloponnese? PAUS
Was Hypermestra put on trial? For not committing murder? For disobedience?
Were the Danaids condemned to filling their pitchers endlessly in the Underworld?
Does Aphrodite's speech mark the climax of the trilogy?
How expensive would the tetralogy have been for the choregos? Could it have been Pericles with his wealthy wife Deinomache?
What was the political situation - Cimon, Ephialtes, Pericles?

Thankfully, for the fourth play, Amymone, a summary of the story exists which could actually be based on distant memories of Aeschylus. It's centuries later, and some details have been misunderstood, but it seemed fairly obvious how the humour would have developed! My re-imagined plays cannot and are not intended in any way to be true scholarly reconstructions. There is almost no real evidence (apart from the Aphrodite speech in Danaids). They should be seen therefore as works of imagination: accuracy is not an issue. Plausibility is the only criterion!

Ancient authors who refer to the Danaid story include: Pindar, Hyginus, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Herodotus, Strabo, Lucian, Ovid, Horace.