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Hypsipyle was daughter of Thoas, King of Lemnos. When the Argonauts visited Lemnos, they found her reigning as queen, the women of the island having slain all the men. Hypsipyle concealed and saved her father, who, however, according to one story, was subsequently discovered and killed. This, and the later massacre of Athenian women who had been carried off by the Pelasgian inhabitants of the island, gave rise to the proverbial expression, “Λήμνια ἔργα” (Herod.vi. 138). A lost play of Aeschylus, Hypsipyle, was no doubt on this subject.

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    • Herodotus, Histories, 6.138
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