Source edition
Aeschyli Tragoediae. Sidgwick, Arthur, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This tragedy depicts the urgent supplication of the Danaids, the fifty daughters of Danaus, who flee to Argos in Greece to escape an unwanted forced marriage to their Egyptian cousins. Arriving in foreign attire, the daughters prove their Argive lineage as descendants of Io and appeal to King Pelasgus of Argos for protection. The King faces an agonizing dilemma: refusing their sacred supplication would provoke the wrath of the gods, yet granting it risks dragging his city into a devastating war with Egypt. Driven by the daughters' desperate threats of suicide, the King takes the matter to the citizens, who unanimously vote to grant them sanctuary as free residents. Their relief is short-lived, however, as the Egyptian fleet arrives, and a hostile herald attempts to drag the women away by force. King Pelasgus intervenes just in time to repel the herald and welcome the women into the city, but the play concludes with a mix of gratitude for their temporary safety and a lingering, fearful premonition of the inevitable conflict and marriage.