Danaides

[ duh-ney-i-deez ]

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.

Danaides

/ 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

Derived Forms

• Danaidean, adjective

Other Words From

• Dan·a·id·e·an [dan-ee-, id, -ee-, uh, n, dan-ee-i-, dee, -, uh, n], adjective

Example Sentences

“Les Danaïdes” caused a sensation at its première, in 1784: its stark harmonies and solemn ensembles paid homage to Gluck, while its Italianate strains brought a new flavor to French tragic opera.

From The New Yorker

The rigorous fury of his orchestral writing anticipates Beethoven, Cherubini, and even Berlioz, who was swayed toward a life in music by an electrifying encounter with “Les Danaïdes,” in the early eighteen-twenties.

From The New Yorker

The Paris Opéra had commissioned Gluck to write a work based on the bloodcurdling mythological tale of the Danaides, the fifty daughters of Danaus, all but one of whom murder their husbands on their wedding night.

From The New Yorker

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

From Project Gutenberg

He might be compared to the Danaides; the more he got the more he spent.

From Project Gutenberg