The Punishment of the Danaids
The daughters of Danaus are condemned in later tradition to carry water into vessels that can never remain full.
The Story
Danaus was the father of fifty daughters, collectively known as the Danaids.
His brother Aegyptus had fifty sons.
A marriage between the two families was proposed.
Danaus distrusted the arrangement and attempted to avoid it, but eventually the marriages took place.
According to the famous tradition, Danaus instructed his daughters to kill their husbands on the wedding night.
Most obeyed.
One daughter, Hypermnestra, refused to kill her husband Lynceus because he had respected her.
The remaining Danaids became associated with a punishment in the Underworld.
They were condemned to carry water and pour it into a container that could never be filled.
Later imagery often describes the vessel as pierced or leaking.
No matter how much water they carried, their work could never be completed.
The punishment resembles that of Sisyphus in one important respect.
It is not merely painful.
It is futile.
Action produces no lasting result.
The Danaids therefore became another ancient symbol of endless labour without completion.
Key Figures
Why It Matters
The Danaids combine themes of family violence, marriage and endless punishment. Their leaking vessels became a lasting image for effort that can never achieve its goal.
Traditions & Variations
The famous leaking-vessel punishment is much more prominent in later tradition than in the earliest surviving accounts of the Danaids. Hypermnestra is normally distinguished from her sisters because she refuses to murder Lynceus.