Expert: Irulan Serena - 8/1/2006

Question
Is there any serious, responsible scholarly opinion that the Israelite Tribe of Dan may be Hellenistic in origin and is cognate to the Danoi of the Iliad?

Answer
Hello Elliot,

Some have speculated that the tribe of Dan is represented in the Greek Danaoi - Danaoi , named after the legendary patriarch Danaus, however,  there are no primary or secondary sources or any scholarly serious, responsible scholarly writings which attest to the theory that the Danoi were from the tribe of Dan.

Danaus was the son of king Belus and Queen Anchinoe of Egypt and his brother was Aegyptus. The brothers were on bad terms, and to make peace Aegyptus wanted his 50 sons to marry Danaus's 50 daughters, the Danaids. The girls refused, and together with their father they fled to Argus, where Danaus became king. The 50 sons followed them there, and Danaus decided to let the marriages happen. He entrusted each daughter with a knife, and on their wedding night all but one murdered Aegyptus sons.
The disobedient, eldest daughter Hypermnestra was put in prison by her father, but freed later on. Artemis killed the Danaids for their crime and they were sent to the underworld, punished to forever try to fill jars with holes in them.

The names Danai - Danaï , and DanaanV - Danaäns, the old name of the Argives, were believed by early Greek etymologists to derive from Da - , Dh - variants of Ga - , Gh - , meaning “Earth” or “Earthborn.”

This last analysis, however, represents ancient "folk etymology" and therefore may not be strictly correct.

Iru