CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Amymone, the "blameless" one, was one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, the brother of Aegyptus. Danaus married his fifty daughters to his brother's fifty sons and instructed them to kill their husbands on their wedding night. All complied but Amymone, who refused because her husband Lynceus honored her wish to remain a virgin, thus she received the epithet, "blameless." Amymone and Lynceus went on to found a dynasty of Argive kings that led to Danaë, the mother of Perseus. While at Argos she went for water and was rescued from a threatening satyr by Poseidon. On gems she is shown with a hydria, or water jar, and Poseidon's attribute, the trident. See for example nos. 387-388 in Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen in Deutschen Sammlungen, Band II, Berlin.