Editing Aeschylus (section)

===''The Suppliants'' (463 BC)===
{{Main|The Suppliants (Aeschylus)}}
[[Image:Danaïdes tuant leurs maris BnF Français 874 fol. 170v.jpg|thumb|left|Miniature by [[Robinet Testard]] showing the [[Danaïdes|Danaids]] murdering their husbands]]
Aeschylus continued his emphasis on the polis with ''The Suppliants'' (''Hiketides'') in 463 BC. The play gives tribute to the democratic undercurrents which were running through Athens and preceding the establishment of a democratic government in 461. The [[Danaïdes|Danaids]] (50 daughters of [[Danaus]], founder of [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]]) flee a forced marriage to their cousins in Egypt.{{clarify|date=October 2020}} They turn to King [[Pelasgus]] of Argos for protection, but Pelasgus refuses until the people of Argos weigh in on the decision (a distinctly democratic move on the part of the king). The people decide that the Danaids deserve protection and are allowed within the walls of Argos despite Egyptian protests.<ref name="F246">{{harvnb |Freeman |1999 |p=246}}</ref>

A Danaid trilogy had long been assumed because of ''The Suppliants''' cliffhanger ending. This was confirmed by the 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3. The constituent plays are generally agreed to be ''The Suppliants'', ''The Egyptians'' and ''The Danaids''. A plausible reconstruction of the trilogy's last two-thirds runs thus:<ref>See (e.g.) Sommerstein 1996, 141–51; Turner 2001, 36–39.</ref> In ''The Egyptians'', the Argive-Egyptian war threatened in the first play has transpired. King Pelasgus was killed during the war, and Danaus rules Argos. Danaus negotiates a settlement with Aegyptus, a condition of which requires his 50 daughters to marry the 50 sons of Aegyptus. Danaus secretly informs his daughters of an oracle which predicts that one of his sons-in-law would kill him. He orders the Danaids to murder their husbands therefore on their wedding night. His daughters agree. ''The Danaids'' would open the day after the wedding.<ref name="Sommerstein 2002, 89">Sommerstein 2002, 89.</ref>

It is revealed that 49 of the 50 Danaids killed their husbands. Hypermnestra did not kill her husband, Lynceus, and helped him  escape. Danaus is angered by his daughter's disobedience and orders her imprisonment and possibly execution. In the trilogy's climax and dénouement, Lynceus reveals himself to Danaus and kills him, thus fulfilling the oracle. He and Hypermnestra will establish a ruling dynasty in Argos. The other 49 Danaids are absolved of their murders, and married off to unspecified Argive men. The satyr play following this trilogy was titled ''Amymone'', after one of the Danaids.<ref name="Sommerstein 2002, 89"/>
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