Danaid 1885-89, Musée Rodin cast no. 8 in 1979 Bronze 12 ¾  x  28 ¾  x  22 ½  in. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Another work originally conceived to be included in The Gates of Hell is Danaid, a graceful figure of a dispairing woman slumped over a rock. According to Greek mythology, the Danaids were the fifty daughters of King Danaos of Argos, who was in conflict with his brother Aegyptos, father of fifty sons. The fifty sons went to Argos to propose marriage to the Danaids as a conciliatory gesture towards Danaos, who continued to resent his brother. Danaos ordered his daughters to murder their bridegrooms on their wedding night, and all but one complied. As a result of their crimes, the Danaids were sentenced to the underworld where their unending penance was to fill pierced jugs with water. Rodin represented Danaid in tearful frustration, as water streams from her broken vessel. The shape of her body mimics that of the rock, and is perhaps one of the artist's most beautifully sculpted anatomies.