Differences And Similarities Between Danaus Daughters And The Aeneid

The Belt Served as a Prognosticator All Along

According to Aeneid Book 10, lines 595-603, the engravings on Pallas’ belt is a literal and

visual representation of the violent and gory murder of Aegyptus’ fifty sons by the hand of

Danaus’ daughters on their wedding night (Aeneid 10.595-603). If I had to make one reasonable

guess pertaining to why Pallas would wear it, I would assume that it may have been to represent

the intense battles that he was fighting in at that time and his status as a fierce, determined, and

aggressive warrior who could bury a sword in “wheezing lungs” (Aeneid 10.445-495). I formed

that theory based on the fact that when people look at frightening things,

One more similarity between that story and

the Aeneid is that new civilizations arose afterward, with Lynceus and Hypermnestra starting the

Danaid Dynasty, and Aeneas starting the “family of Romans” (Aeneid 6.935-945). I don’t find

the similarities in the situations between Danaus’ daughters and Aeneas and Turnus coincidental,

because considering how nearly identical both stories are, Virgil must have intentionally done

that on purpose in order to give us some foretelling clues that reveal how Aeneid ends.

The Augustan values in Aeneid that represent this belt and Aeneas and Turnus’ encounter

are “furor” and violation of “clementia.” In both scenarios, violence was applied instead of

mercy in vengeful ways. I found it interesting that Danaus and his daughters rebelled against

clementia in the story on Pallas’ belt because that’s the same value that Aeneas broke when he

gave into his anger and killed Turnus (Aeneid 12.1155). What Aeneas and Danaus’ daughter’s

situations had in common, was that both of them could have applied clementia by deciding to

settle matters peacefully instead of killing their enemies. However, although Aeneas