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

And in the Danaides he says— Osmulia, mœnidea, and cuttle-fish.

From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us

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)

Nevertheless, for three consecutive hours, I witness this strange sight: the Bee, full of active zeal for the task in hand, omits to plug this vessel of the Danaides.

From The Mason-Bees by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander

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)

Hence the proverbial phrase, Omnis res jam in vado est; like a swimmer who has reached the bottom 202 of the water: and Largitio fundum non habet, like the vessel of the Danaides.

From Döderlein's Hand-book of Latin Synonymes by Döderlein, Ludwig