DA'NAIDE, a hydraulic machine made of two cylinders one within the other, turn ing easily on a vertical axis, and having a small space between them. The smallest one is closed at the bottom, and the other has a hole in the middle of its base. The bottoms of the two are separated by partitions reaching from the circumference to the center, but the ring-like space between the cylinders is open. If water be turned into this space horizontally to the surface of the cylinders, they begin to revolve by friction, which motion is increased by the water in revolution acting on the radial partitions in the base. It is found that nearly three quarters of the hydraulic power can thus be utilized.
DAN Atts, a mythical personage, the son of Belus and Anchinoe, brother of iEgyp tus, and originally ruler of Libya. Thinking his life in danger from the machinations of his brother, lie fled to Argos, accompanied by his fifty daughters, known as the DANAIDES, where he was chosen king, utter the banishment of Gelanor, the last of the Inachidte. The fifty sons of 2Egyptus followed him, and under the pretense of friend ship, sought the hand of his daughters in marriage. D. consented, but on the bridal
night he gave his daughters each a dagger, and urged them to murder their bridegrooms in revenge for the treatment he had received from YEgyptus. All did so, except one, Hypermnestra, who allowed her betrothed, Lynceus, to escape. D., as may naturally be supposed, found great. difficulty in obtaining new husbands for his daughters; and in order to get them off his hands, instituted games, where they were given as rewards to the victors, although they could scarcely have been considered very tempting prizes. As a punishment for their crime, they were compelled, in the under-world, to pour water for ever into a vessel full of holes. So runs the myth; but Strabo mentions an old tradition, which declares D. and his fifty daughters to have provided Argos with water, which is probably the origin of the scene in Hades. Greek art, of course, repre sents the Danaides in conformity with the popular myth. The tomb of D., in the Agora of Argos, was shown as late as the time of Pausamas.