In Greek mythology, the Daughters of Danaus or Danaids (also Danaides or Danaïdes; Greek: Δαναΐδες; /dəˈneɪɪdiːz/) were the fifty daughters of Danaus. They were to marry the fifty sons of Danaus's twin brother Aegyptus, a mythical king of Egypt. In the most common version of the myth, all but one of them kill their husbands on their wedding night, and are condemned to spend eternity carrying water in a sieve or perforated device. In the classical tradition, they come to represent the futility of a repetitive task that can never be completed (see also Sisyphus).
Read more about Daughters Of Danaus: Mythology, Other Danaids, Modern Literature
Famous quotes containing the words daughters of and/or daughters:
“For even daughters of the swan can share
Something of every paddler’s heritage—”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)