Music Control
Danaide (1885)
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Danaide, a graceful figure of a dispairing woman slumped over a rock. According
to Greek mythology, the Danaides 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 Danaides
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 Danaides
were sentenced to the underworld where their unending penance was to fill
pierced jugs with water. Rodin represented Danaide 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.
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playing midi "Pegasus"