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

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.

Ay, she is mad indeed, my king, as thou; She throws her all into a burning house, And draweth water in the leaky vessel Of the Danaides.

From Maid of Orleans by Schiller, Friedrich

It was like the cask of Danaides into which the public had been pleased to pour its deposits.

From Chance A Tale in Two Parts by Conrad, Joseph

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)

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