Danaus, was the son of King Belus of Egypt and the naiad Achiroe, daughter of the river god Nilus,[3] or of Sida,[4] eponym of Sidon.

Danaus had fifty daughters, the Danaides, twelve of whom were born to the naiad Polyxo; six to Pieria; two to Elephantis; four to Queen Europa; ten to the hamadryad nymphs Atlanteia and Phoebe; seven to an Aethiopian woman; three to Memphis; two to Herse and lastly four to Crino.

Argos at the time was ruled by King Pelasgus, the eponym of all autochthonous [indigenous] inhabitants who had lived in Greece since the beginning, also called Gelanor ("he who laughs").

When Pausanias visited Argos in the 2nd century CE, he related the succession of Danaus to the throne, judged by the Argives, who "from the earliest times ... have loved freedom and self-government, and they limited to the utmost the authority of their kings": The sanctuary of Apollo Lykeios ("wolf-Apollo", but also Apollo of the twilight) was still the most prominent feature of Argos in Pausanias' time: in the sanctuary, the tourist might see the throne of Danaus himself, an eternal flame, called the fire of Phoroneus.

According to Rhodian mythographers who informed Diodorus Siculus,[20] Danaus would have stopped and founded a sanctuary to Athena Lindia on the way from Egypt to Greece.

Notes in Pliny the Elder's, Natural History also added that: The town Apobathmi in ancient Argolis took its name from Danaus landing at this spot.

[23] The epic Danais[24] was written by one of the cyclic poets; the name of the author and the narration of these events does not survive,[25] but the Danaid tetralogy of Aeschylus undoubtedly draws upon its material.