Danais (Ancient Greek: Δαναΐς) refers to a lost ancient Greek epic written by one of the cyclic poets.Two lines were quoted by a later poet. The Danaid tetralogy of Aeschylus undoubtedly draws its material from this particular literary work. Danais is represented in the table of epics in the received canon on the very fragmentary "Borgia table"W. McLeod, "The "Epic Canon" of the Borgia Table: Hellenistic Lore or Roman Fraud?" Transactions of the American Philological Association, 115 (1985:161f). as "Danaides".
The subject of the epic is the Danaïdes, the fifty daughters of Danaus, a king in Libya. A description of them preparing for a battle in Egypt (they were to be married off to fifty brothers, the children of Danaus's twin brother) is the only detail left of the poem.
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