The mental process by which Horace makes the link between the power of poetry and the story of the Danaids is a little mysterious, but the two are narrated in the first and second halves of this piece. All but one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, acting on his orders, murdered their husbands on their wedding night. We first find them in Hades, where their eternal punishment is to try to fill a huge jar with water, only for it to pour forever out through a hole in the bottom. The implied message to Lyde, the girl whom the speaker in the poem is pursuing, includes both a carrot and a stick: if she complies, she will be merciful and kind, like the one Danaid who did not commit the crime; if she is cruel, she will deserve some punishment for the hardness of her heart. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
The daughters of Danaus
