Egypt

Egipt was the son of King Bel and Anhinoi , daughter of the river god Nile. According to his father, he was the grandson of Epaphus , the son of Zeus from Io , and thus came from the first kings of Argos . Egypt was born with the twin brother Danai ^{[1] [2]} ; his uncle was Agenor , a cousin - the founder of the Seven-Gate Thebes Cadmus , a cousin - Europe ^[3] . There are alternative genealogies according to which Egypt was the son of Bela from Anhiroi, Eriya or Sida; the son of Nile and Memphis ; the son of Zeus and Phoebe; finally, the son of Hephaestus and Leucippus ^[1] .

Egipt became king of Arabia and conquered the land of melampods ("blackfoots"), called Egypt . Danai ruled Libya at this time. After Bel’s death, strife broke out between the brothers. Egipt suggested that his brother, in reconciliation, marry fifty of his sons to fifty of his daughters, but he preferred to flee to the north by ship. The sons of Egypt went after him; according to Gaius Julius Gigin , his father ordered them to kill Danae or not to return ^[4] . In Argolis, the Egiptiads caught up with their uncle and forced him to marry their daughters. However, on the wedding night, the Danaids killed all the Egiptiads with one exception: Hypernestra saved Linkey's life ^[5] . Egipt himself came to Greece after his sons and, learning about what had happened, either died of grief in Argos (as Hekatei of Miletus writes ^[1] ), or, fearing the name of his brother, fled to the city of Aroa in Achaia and died there (this is the version of Pausanias ^[6] ). He was buried in Patras . Back in the 2nd century AD e. his grave was shown to travelers in the local temple of Serapis ^{[6] [1]} .

Apollodorus of Athens gives a list of the names of the fifty Egiptiads. According to him, six sons gave birth to Egipta Argifiya, ten - some Arabian woman, seven Phoenician , three Tyria, twelve Kaliadna, six Gorgos and six more - Hephaestine ^[7] . Hesiod also writes about fifty sons, but Hekatei believed that there could not be more than twenty ^[1] . Egiptiad Linkey became the father of Abantus and the ancestor of many heroes , including Perseus and Heracles ^[8] .

The myth of Egypt and Danae became the literary basis for the surviving tragedy of Aeschylus “The petitioner ” (Egypt does not appear in it), for the lost tragedy of the same author “The Egyptians” ^[9] , the epic poem “Danaids”, the tragedies of Frinich (“Egyptians” and “ Danaids "), Timesifey (" Danaids "), comedies of Aristophanes . Thanks to Paros marble , the dating of Danae's swimming is known - 1510 BC. e. ^[10] Manetho allegedly identified Egypt with the pharaoh Mephosis , and Eusebius of Caesarea with Ramses. ^[11]

There is a hypothesis that Danai and Egypt are ancient royal titles ^[12] .

Sources

1. Apollodorus. Mythological library (neopr.) . Site "History of Ancient Rome". Date of treatment April 7, 2018.
2. Pausanias. Description of Hellas (neopr.) . Site "History of Ancient Rome". Date of treatment April 7, 2018.
3. Guy Julius Gigin. Myths - St. Petersburg: Aletheia, 2000 .-- 480 p. - ISBN 5-89329-198-O.

Literature

1. Graves R. Myths of Ancient Greece. - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria, 2005 .-- 1008 p. - ISBN 5-9709-0136-9 .
2. Myths of the peoples of the world. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1988. - T. 2. - 719 p.
3. Podzemskaya N. “The petitioners” // Aeschylus. Tragedy. - M .: Art, 1978. - S. 341.
4. Bernhard J. Aigyptos 1 // Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie. - 1886. - Bd. I, 1. - Kol. 155-157.
5. Wernicke K. Danaides // Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft . - 1893. - Bd. I, 1. - Kol. 1005-1006.