In Greek mythology, Aegyptus, or properly A gyptos in Greek ("supine goat"), was the king of Egypt (which took its name from his, accoring to this), the son of Belus and father of fifty sons who were all but one murdered by the fifty daughters of Aegyptus' twin brother, Danaus.
Aegyptus commanded that his sons marry the Danaides and Danaus fled to Argos, ruled by King Pelasgus. 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, honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with his disobedient daughter and threw her to the Argive courts. Aphrodite intervened and saved her. Lynceus later slew Danaus as revenge for the death of his brothers. Lynceus and Hypermnestra founded the lineage of Argive kings (the Danaan Dynasty). 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 that the water always leaked out.
Aegyptus is also the Latin spelling of Egypt, and the correct denomination for the Roman province.
The androgynous Danaos and his daughters implored the Argives to protect them from the pursuing sons of Aigyptos who were determined to marry them.
At the end of the dream sequence, Pelasgos returned with the news that the Danaids could have sanctuary, whereupon the sons of Aigyptos were sighted approaching.
A battle commenced, with the sons of Aigyptos carrying flaming torches and the women cowering behind their suitcases.
The reports in the Western press of Pope Shenouda's plight were, for some readers, their first acquaintance with the existence of one of Christianity's oldest branches, the Egyptian church.
The word 'Copt' is from the Arabic Qibt, which in turn is derived from the Greek word Aigyptos, meaning Egypt.
Aigyptos is the Greek form of the ancient Egyptian ptah, which originally referred to the local creator deity of Memphis, an old capital of Egypt, then later came to mean Egypt itself.
Feeds |
Contact