Danaides

American  

[duh-ney-i-deez] / dəˈneɪ ɪˌdiz /

Also Danaidae

plural noun

Classical Mythology.

1. the 50 daughters of Danaus, 49 of whom were condemned to pour water forever into a leaky vessel for having murdered their husbands.

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Danaides British  

/ ˌdænɪˈɪdɪən, dəˈneɪɪˌdiːz, ˌdænɪəˈdiːən /

plural noun

1. the fifty daughters of Danaüs. All but Hypermnestra murdered their bridegrooms and were punished in Hades by having to pour water perpetually into a jar with a hole in the bottom

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Other Word Forms

• Danaidean adjective

Example Sentences

It is the vessel of the Danaides; for it there is no highest good, no absolute good, but always a merely temporary good.

From The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Schopenhauer, Arthur

He represents the punishment of the Danaides as a symbol of the incapacity of the human spirit to enjoy the natural charm of the recurring seasons of the year.

From The Roman Poets of the Republic by Sellar, W. Y.

We seemed in those infernal regions to repeat the toil of the Danaides, and to be attempting to fill the leaky vessel of society by efforts which left it as empty as before.

From The Dangerous Classes of New York And Twenty Years' Work Among Them by Brace, Charles Loring

The "fifty sisters" are the fifty Danaides, who, for slaying their husbands, were condemned to pour water forever into a vessel full of holes.

From Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Spenser, Edmund

The fate of the Danaides is his, and he draws long with a bottomless bucket.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 11, September, 1858 by Various