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LYNO. Lynceus was one of the fifty sons of Aegyptus who married their cousins, the fifty daughters of Danaus. Danaus commanded his daughters to slay their husbands because he did not trust Aegyptus. All obeyed except Hypermnestra, who married Lynceus. She helped him to escape, and Danaus imprisoned her. (Heroides XIV; OM II.4587-4796).

Chaucer switches the sons and daughters; Lyno becomes Danao's son and marries Ypermestra, Egiste's daughter. She saves his life by warning him about her father's command, and he flees, leaving her behind, LGW 2562-2723. [Danao: Egiste: Ypermystra]

Lyno is ablative singular of nominative Linus. It appears in Filippo Ceffi's Italian translation of Heroides (c. 1320-1330), which Chaucer may have known. It occurs four times in medial positions, LGW 608, 2676, 2711, 2716, and twice in final rhyming position, LGW 2569, 2604.

S.B. Meech, "Chaucer and an Italian translation of the Heroides." PMLA 45 (1930): 123; Ovid, Her, ed. and trans. G. Showerman, 170-181; OM, ed. C. de Boer, I, deel 15: 268-273.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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