Hypermnestra in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, is a name that refers to several characters.

The Danaid

Hypermnestra was the daughter of Danaus

Danaus

In Greek mythology Danaus, or Danaos , was the twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. The myth of Danaus is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus...

. Danaus was the twin brother of Aegyptus

Aegyptus

- Aegyptus, King of Egypt and Arabia :In Greek mythology, Aegyptus is a descendant of the heifer maiden, Io, and the river-god Nilus, and was a king in Egypt. Aegyptos was the son of Belus and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile. Aegyptus fathered fifty sons, who were all but one murdered by the...

 and son of Belus

Belus

Belus or Belos may be:* The classical Latin or Greek rendition of Bel the Semitic honorific**Ba`al as a Semitic deity** Belus , the Greek Zeus Belos and Latin Jupiter Belus as translations of the Babylonian god Bel Marduk...

. He had fifty daughters, the Danaides, and Aegyptus had fifty sons. Aegyptus commanded that his sons marry the Danaides and Danaus fled to Argos

Argos

Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...

, ruled by King Pelasgus

Pelasgus

In Greek mythology, Pelasgus was the eponymous ancestor of the Pelasgians, the mythical inhabitants of Greece who established the worship of the Dodonaean Zeus, Hephaestus, the Cabeiri, and other divinities. In the different parts of the country once occupied by Pelasgians, there existed...

. When Aegyptus and his sons arrived to take the Danaides, Danaus gave 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 refused because her husband, Lynceus

Lynceus

In Greek mythology, Lynceus was a king of Argos, succeeding Danaus. He is named as a descendant of Belus through his father Aegyptus, who was the twin brother of Danaus. Danaus had fifty daughters, the Danaides, while Aegyptus had fifty sons including Lynceus, whose name when translated means "wolf"...

, honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with his disobedient daughter and threw her to the Argive courts. Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

 intervened and saved her. Lynceus later killed Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers. Lynceus and Hypermnestra then began a dynasty of Argive kings (the Danaid Dynasty), beginning with Abas

Abas

Abas or ABAS may refer to:In people:*Abas , an ancient Greek sophist and rhetorician*Abas , several individuals in Greek and Roman mythology...

. In some versions of the legend, the Danaides were punished in the underworld by being forced to carry water through a jug with holes, or a sieve, so the water always leaked out. Hypermnestra, however, went straight to Elysium

Elysium

Elysium is a conception of the afterlife that evolved over time and was maintained by certain Greek religious and philosophical sects, and cults. Initially separate from Hades, admission was initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes...

.

Daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis

Hypermnestra was the daughter of Thestius

Thestius

In Greek mythology, Thestius was the son of either Ares and Demonice, or Agenor and Epicasta. He was the father of Iphicles with Leucippe, or Deidameia, daughter of Perieres, or else with Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboea and mother of his other children, Althaea, Eurypylus, Evippus, Hypermnestra,...

 and Eurythemis. Her sisters are Althaea

Althaea (mythology)

Althaea was in Greek mythology the daughter of King Thestius and Eurythemis, and was sister to Leda, Hypermnestra, Iphiclus, Euippus, &c. She was also the wife of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and mother of five sons, Meleager, Melanippe , Troxeus, Thyreus, Clymenus, and two daughters, Deianeira and...

 and Leda

Leda (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Leda was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of the king Tyndareus , of Sparta. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan...

. With her husband Oicles

Oicles

In Greek mythology, Oecles was an Argive king, father of Amphiaraus, son of Mantius or Antiphates and grandson of Melampus....

, she had a son named Amphiaraus

Amphiaraus

In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus was the son of Oecles and Hypermnestra, and husband of Eriphyle. Amphiaraus was the King of Argos along with Adrastus— the brother of Amphiaraus' wife, Eriphyle— and Iphis. Amphiaraus was a seer, and greatly honored in his time...

, who later took part in the war of the Seven Against Thebes

Seven Against Thebes

The Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won...

, and also two daughters, Polyboea

Polyboea

In Greek mythology, Polyboea is a name that refers to:*A sister of Hyacinthus who died a virgin and was believed to have been taken to heaven by Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis, together with her brother.*The first wife of Actor....

 and Iphianeira

Iphianeira

In Greek mythology, the name Iphianeira may refer to two women, great-grandmother and great-granddaughter:*Daughter of Megapenthes and wife of Melampus, mother of Antiphates, Bias, Pronoe and Manto....

.

Daughter of Erysichthon

Hypermestra is a name by which Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300.His only surviving work is the Metamorphoses, , a collection of forty-one very briefly summarised tales about mythical metamorphoses effected by offended deities, unique in that they are...

 refers to a character otherwise known as Mestra

Mestra

In Greek mythology, Mestra She is also occasionally referred to as Mnestra in modern sources, though the form is not anciently attested; cf. Clytemnestra, whose name does appear with and without the n in ancient authors...

, daughter of Erysichthon

Erysichthon

In Greek mythology, Erysichthon can refer to two different personages:-Erysichthon of Thessaly:...

.

Sources

• Ovid
  Ovid
  Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
  
  , Heroides
  Heroides
  The Heroides , or Epistulae Heroidum , are a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets, and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroines of Greek and Roman mythology, in address to their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated,...
  
  14.
• Eusebuis, Chronicon 46.8-12, 47.22-23.
• Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos I.ii.i.
• Lactantius Placidus, Commentarii in Statii Thebaida II.222.