Daunus or Daunius
1. A son of Lycaon in Arcadia, and brother of Iapyx and Peucetius. These three brothers, in conjunction with Illyrians and Messapians, landed on the eastern coast of Italy, expelled the Ausonians, took possession of the country, and divided it into three parts, Daunia, Peucetia, and Messapia. The three tribes together bore the common name Iapygians. (Anton. Lib. 31.)
2. A son of Pilumnus and Danaë, was married to Venilia. He was the father of at least the most ancient among the ancestors of Turnus. (The Aeneid by Virgil X.)
3. A king of Apulia. He had been obliged to flee from Illyria, his native land, into Apulia, and gave his name to a portion of his new country. (Daunia.) He is said to have hospitably received Diomedes, and to have given him his daughter Euippe in marriage.
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyFrom Metamorphoses by Ovid. The Adventures of Diomedes
Contracts, and shrieks in some disdainful note.
To his new skin a fleece of feather clings,
Hides his late arms, and lengthens into wings.
The lower features of his face extend,
Warp into horn, and in a beak descend. .
Some more experience Agmon's destiny,
And wheeling in the air, like swans they fly:
These thin remains to Daunus' realms I bring,
And here I reign, a poor precarious king.
