DAPHNAE (Tahpanhes, Taphne; mod. Defenneh)  , an ancient fortress near the Syrian frontier of Egypt, on the Pelusian arm of the Nile . Here King Psammetichus established a garrison of foreign mercenaries, mostly Carians and Ionian Greeks (Herodotus ii . 154) . After the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 588 B.C., the Jewish fugitives, of whom Jeremiah was one, came to Tahpanhes . When Naucratis was given by Amasis II. the monopoly of Greek traffic, the Greeks were all removed from Daphnae, and the place never recovered its prosperity ; in Herodotus's time the deserted remains of the docks and buildings were visible . The site was discovered by Prof . W . M . Flinders Petrie in 1886; the name " Castle of the Jew's Daughter " seems to preserve the tradition of the Jewish refugees . There is a massive fort and enclosure; the chief discovery was a large number of fragments of pottery, which are of great importance for the chronology of vase-painting, since they must belong to the time between Psammetichus and Amasis, i.e. the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century B.C . They show the characteristics of Ionian art, but their shapes and other details testify to their local manufacture . See W.M .

F . Petrie, Tanis II., Nebesheh, and Defenneh (th Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1888) . E . GR.)

DAPHNE (Gr. for a laurel tree), in Greek mythology, the daughter of the Arcadian river-god Ladon or the Thessalian Peneus, or of the Laconian Amyclas . She was beloved by Apollo, and when pursued by him was changed by her mother Gaea into a laurel tree sacred to the god (Ovid, Metam . 452-567) . In the Peloponnesian legends, another suitor of Daphne, Leucippus, son of Oenomaus of Pisa, disguised himself as a girl and joined her companions . His sex was discovered while bathing, and he was slain by the nymphs (Pausanias viii . 2o; Parthenius, Erotica, 15) .