Galaxy/The codex of Amymone

In Greek mythology, Amymone ("blameless; innocent") is one of the fifty Danaids, daughters of Danaus. Sent to find water when Poseidon had dried the springs of Argos, she met a satyr and then Poseidon, who revealed the springs of Lerna (or a spring named for her) and became by her the father of the seafarer Nauplius, eponym of Nauplia. Distinct from any naiad daughter of Inachus who shares the name.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Amymone" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Poseidon and the spring

After Inachus awarded Argos to Hera, Poseidon punished the land with drought. Danaus sent his daughters for water; Amymone, hunting or searching with a dart, roused a satyr who pursued her. Poseidon drove the satyr off, lay with Amymone, and showed her the Lernaean springs — or had her pull his lodged trident from a rock so that water gushed forth.

She bore Nauplius, the navigator who founded Nauplia on the Argive coast. Aeschylus wrote a lost satyr play Amymone on the seduction; Roman mosaics often show Poseidon approaching her with a water jug as her attribute.

II.Among the Danaids

Apollodorus lists her among Danaus's daughters by Europa and as wife of Enceladus, whom she slew on the wedding night with forty-eight sisters. Other strands treat her as the "blameless" Danaid who refused murder — overlapping Hypermnestra — and mother of Abas by Lynceus. Her pitcher recalls Lerna's waters and, by contrast, the leaky jars of the punished Danaids in Tartarus.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameAmymonē (Ἀμυμόνη)
Typemortal
DomainsDanaid · mother of Nauplius
ParentageDanaus
Symbolswater jug · trident spring · Lerna
Cult centersLerna · Nauplia (Nauplius)
EtymologyAncient Greek Ἀμυμώνη (Amymónē), "blameless" or "innocent"; her name has invited identification with Hypermnestra, the one Danaid who spared her husband.
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