In the Mysts of Shadowed Mysteries...famous Women in Mythology

Danaides

Introduction
They were the fifty (and more, if you count all of the names, most of which are said to be added later on) daughters of Danaus. His twin brother, Aegyptus, had fifty sons. Due to their territory, there was a bit of a split between the two brothers. Aegyptus, in turn, suggested a mass marriage of his sons to Danaus' daughters.

Danaus, however, suspected the worse of his brother. This was confirmed by an oracle who told Danaus that Aegyptus planned to have all his sons kill their wives. It was then that Danaus left the area, taking his fifty daughters with him, and he did this to evade his brother.

When he arrived there, Danaus spoke to Gelanor, king of Argos. He explained that his rite to rule Argos was divinely ordained, and thus he became the kingdom of Argos. This, he hoped, would stop his brother from bothering him.

Mass Marriage
All of Aegyptus's sons went to Argos and again proposed marriage. Still, Danaus was rightly concerned. Why would all fifty of them want to marry all his daughters?

So, Danaus allowed them to marry his daughters. But he instructed them all to take knives to their wedding beds. On the wedding night, they all were to kill their husbands. (The marriages were set up due to likenesses of their names.) After killing them, they were to behead their husbands.

The only son that survived the mass murder was Lynceus, who was married to Hypermnestra. She allowed him to live because he left her a virgin. The other sisters were all purified by Athena and Hermes at the command of Zeus himself.

Aftermath
After Lynceus was allowed to go, some stories cite him killing all of the women. However, most stories have all of them living.

Danaus then had to worry about finding all of his daughters real husbands. Husbands that would not mind caring for a woman who has killed one of her previous husbands, who might be pregnant by the husband she killed, and who would not complain about who he was married to. So, Danaus gave his daughters out through public contests, of which the winners won a daughter.

Since Danaus had only daughters, he had no one to pass the kingdom to. Thus, Lynceus took the throne when Danaus died.

Sadly, even though the Daniades were purified, they still went to Tarderus. There, they were to fill a vessle (with water) - the vessle had holes in it.

Contradictions
As it is imaginable, the stories of the Daniades have many holes in them. Many of the names and suitor set-ups are ambigious. (Only about twelve of them are agreed upon.) Some say that only forty-eight suitors died, and that Lynceus had alread married Hypermnestra before hand.

There are about twelve Dianades that have been identified, but were not set up with suiters. Some believe that Danaus had other daughters after he moved to Argos.

Some other Daniades were also said to have died in Rhodes - three to be exact. Some of which were said to have married after the time they were in Rhodes.

Bibliography
Robert E. Bell's Women of Classical Mythology - Published 1991
Encyclopedia Mythica - 1995-2002