Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Lynceus.
The gallery
Plate with Hypermnestra Watching Lynceus Take Her Father's Crown
Francesco Xanto Avelli, c. 1537
Walters maiolica: Lynceus — the sole son of Aegyptus spared on the Danaid wedding night — seizes Danaus’ crown while Hypermnestra watches. Renaissance tin-glaze makes the Argive survivor a king-maker, not the sharp-eyed Argonaut who shares his name.
Hypermnestra, Lynceus, and the Danaïdes
Woodcut illustrator (Penn Provenance Project), 16th century
Early printed woodcut of the Danaid crisis names Lynceus beside Hypermnestra — the bridegroom who lived when forty-nine brothers died. Book illustration kept the Argive pair legible for readers of Ovid’s Heroides.