Face down and fused with the earth, Danaid conveys a strong sense of utter despondence. In Greek mythology Danaid and her forty-nine sisters were married to the fifty sons of Aegyptus. At the command of their father, Danaus, the daughters murdered their husbands on the first night of their marriage. As punishment for this crime the Danaides were sentenced to Hades, the underworld, where their penance was to eternally ship water using leaking jugs. When Rodin began his monumental Gates of Hell, he probably intended to use the Danaid figure to represent one of the damned. As it turned out, however, she does not appear in that work, despite the appropriateness of the subject.