[7] Proetus and Acrisius quarreled continually ever since they still were in the womb that they even carried on with the rivalry into their adult years, inventing shields or bucklers in the process.
[9] Proetus started out as king of Argos, and held the throne for about seventeen years, but Acrisius defeated him in the war and exiled him.
Proetus then fled to King Jobates (Iobates) or Amphianax in Lycia, and married his daughter Antea[4] or Stheneboea.
As Proetus refused to accept these terms, the madness of his daughters not only increased, but was communicated to the other Argive women also, so that they murdered their own children and ran about in a state of frenzy.
Proetus then declared himself willing to listen to the proposal of Melampus; but the latter now also demanded for his brother Bias an equal share of the kingdom of Argos.
Proetus consented[15] and Melampus, having chosen the most robust among the young men, gave chase to the mad women, amid shouting and dancing, and drove them as far as Sicyon.
[23] In one account, Proetus had yet another daughter, Nyctaea, who fled from her own father's attempts of violation and was changed by Athena into an owl;[24] her story is a variant for that of Nyctimene.