Marble Sculpture by French artist François Auguste René Rodin (1840-1917), c. 1903, Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL.

Note: “This sculpture depicts a dramatic moment from Greek mythology when one of the Danaids, the daughters of Danaos, collapses in despair… after being punished with the endless task of filling a bottomless barrel with water.”[1]

After Aegyptus had seized the Egyptian throne from his twin brother Danaos, the latter agreed to betroth his 50 daughters to the former’s 50 sons for the sake of peace. However, instead of keeping with the agreement, Danaos fled with his daughters to Argos where the people made him king believing they had been sent by the gods because of his daughters’ indescribable beauty. Under his rule, Argos experienced an era of “peace and prosperity”[2] that was threatened when Aegyptus and his sons arrived upon learning Danaos and his daughters were there. Danaos in no position to wage war accepted Aegyptus’ terms to honor the agreement but warned him, “[a]t thine own peril touch them!” to which Aegyptus responded – “[t]he prey is mine, unless force rend it from me.”[3]

Peace! For what Fate hath ordained will surely not tarry but come…
Wide is the counsel of Zeus…
Only I pray that whate’er, in the end, of this wedlock he doom…”[4]

Consequently, Danaos who did not want his daughters despoiled by Aegyptus’ sons, lamented his decision and instructed them to kill their husbands after marrying them:

“Bring down the curse of death, that dieth not…”[5]

He provided each with a dagger to accomplish the task, to which they agreed if there was no other way:

“Artemis, maiden most pure, look on us with… pity –
Save us from forced embraces: such love hath no crown but… pain...
Great Zeus, this wedlock turn from me… hold from my body the wedlock detested, the bridegroom abhorred!”[6]

Accordingly, as their husbands slept on their wedding night, each of Danaos’ daughters having resolved – “Come what come may, ‘tis Fate’s decree…”[7] – when their prayers went unanswered, with the exception of Hypermnestra (who spared her husband Lynceus because “he had respected her virginity”[8]) killed them according to plan. They then disposed of their husbands’ heads in a Lernaean marsh and buried their bodies in separate graves.

To express the “emotional anguish” of the eternal punishment allotted to 49 of the Danaids, Rodin depicted one of the Danaids lying “huddled on the ground” filled with “physical contortions.”[9] She heaved from an outburst of violent weeping as she protested her fate and prayed for mercy upon learning of her punishment:

“The exile that leaveth me pure… the doom is hard!”[10]
_____

[1] Exhibit Display Tag. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Jacksonville, FL. 9 July 2019.

[2] The Danaides. Paleothea. 28 January 2004. www.paleothea.com/Myths/Danaides.html

[3] Aeschylus. The Suppliants. 463 BC. classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html

[4] Aeschylus. The Suppliants. 463 BC. classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html

[5] Aeschylus. The Suppliants. 463 BC. classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html

[6] Aeschylus. The Suppliants. 463 BC. classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html

[7] Aeschylus. The Suppliants. 463 BC. classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html

[8] Danaids. Greek Mythology Link. 1997. www.maicar.com/GML/DANAIDS.html

[9] Exhibit Display Tag. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Jacksonville, FL. 9 July 2019.

[10] Aeschylus. The Suppliants. 463 BC. classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html

Additional Sources:

Campbell Bonner. A Study of the Danaid Myth. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Vol. 13. 1902. 132. www.jstor.org/stable/310344?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Madeline Miller. Myth of the Week: The Danaids. February 2018. madelinemiller.com/myth-of-the-week-the-danaids