Literal Translation
Danaids’ barrel
Actual Meaning
A sisyphean task
Etymology
Like the expressions ‘Penelope’s web’ and ‘Sisyphus’ rock’, which have roughly the same meaning, ‘the Danaids’ barrel’ comes from Greek mythology. In ancient Greek legends, the Danaids are the fifty daughters of King Danaos. His brother Aegyptus, after conquering Egypt, wants to marry his sons, also fifty in number, to Danaos’ daughters to avoid conflict. But an oracle reveals to Danaos that once married, the sons will kill their new wives. King Danaos therefore fled with his daughters to Argos, where he became king thanks to Athena. Caught up by the sons of Egyptos and threatened with a siege, Danaos finally agreed to the marriages. When evening came, he ordered his daughters to kill their husbands while they slept. All obeyed, except the eldest, Hypermnestra, who spared her husband Lynceus and helped him escape. Judged and cast into Tartarus for their crime, the Danaids were condemned to fill leaky jars for eternity, hence the meaning of the expression.
However, there are no ‘barrels’ in the legend. In Plato’s Phaedrus (370 BC), the Greek philosopher refers to it in these terms: urnis scelestae Danaides portant aquas, pertusa nec complere possunt dolia; immo luxuriae quicquid dederis perfluet (“The wicked Danaids carry water in urns, which their broken jars cannot even fill; in truth, whatever you give to lust will flow through”). Furthermore, historians date the invention of the barrel to around two hundred years later, around the 1st century BC, attributed to the Gauls or the Raeti. Who knows then…