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father.21  (528) is contrasted with  (531); this leads to a particular woman, Io, the ancestress beloved of Zeus, (533). At this point the Danaids move from the past to the present in which the past is reincarnate, and reveal the fantasy in which Io is their mother and they are Io: |
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I have crossed over to the ancient path,
where my mother ate flowers and watched,
the rich meadow, from which Io
driven by the gad-fly
flees distraught . . . (538542) |
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The Danaids now see themselves as standing in the foot-prints of their mother Io. Her situation, which they are doomed to repeat, is, as the imagery suggests, the rejection of female sexuality in the presence of threatening masculinity. The phallic meaning of stinging, piercing insects such as the gad-fly or bee is unmistakable (Brophy 1962: 426), and the symbolizing of the female sexual organs by flowers, gardens, meadows, etc., is virtually a cultural universal.  (gad-fly) is a word regularly used by the tragedians to mean lust, passion, frenzy, and the stinging gadfly which pursues Io is clearly the symbol of Zeus' sexual intentions.  (meadow) is another recurrent sexual symbol (Segal 1965: 163, n. 21), denoting specifically the female genitals (e.g., Euripides' Cyclops 171). It is significant that while the Danaids picture themselves fleeing the meadow of their sexuality as did Io, they fail to recognize that which is betrayed by their words, that the ultimate salvation of Io takes place in a  (''a meadow nourished by snow", 559). The release of Io from her sufferings is accomplished when she is impregnated by that from which she fled, and in the place from which she fled. |
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The connection of flowers with the female genitals, especially in a state of virginity, is found in many languages and cultures, in both myths and dreams (Freud 19161917: 158). An example which seems particularly pertinent to the Suppliants is Freud's description of a young woman whose recurrent dreams about flowers signified the "fear of being deflowered" and "an over-valuation of her virginity" (1900: 377). Similar feelings are revealed in the Danaids' prayer that "the flower of youth be not plucked" |
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21 The remarks of Lattimore (1964) 8182, n.24, seem to me to miss the point. More relevant to the Aigyptids, at least in the eyes of the Danaids, is the description of hubris as "masculine pride and phallic self-satisfaction, even exhibitionism" (Slater 1968: 45). |
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