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

See Examples For:

Danaides

The fifty daughters of Danaus, known as "the Danaides," were punished in Hades for their crime by being compelled everlastingly to pour water into a sieve.

From The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes Anglo-Israelism Examined by Baron, David

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

Then she trudged off to the railway station; and went home, like Sisyphus or the Danaides, to take up her apparently impossible task.

From Mrs. Thompson A Novel by Maxwell, W. B. (William Babington)

The strange and weird legends of Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, Prometheus, and the Danaides, have all one common feature about them.

From Practical Religion Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians by Ryle, John Charles

These fair maidens were the Danaides, daughters of Danaus, who had pledged his fifty daughters to the fifty sons of his brother Ægyptus.

From Myths of Greece and Rome Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art by Guerber, H. A. (H?l?ne Adeline)