 For "Fountain of the Great Lakes", Taft claimed an inspiration from the Greek mythology.Danaus ordered his 49 daughters to kill their husbands and condemned them to delivering water to a bottomless vessel in Hades.This was in keeping with Taft's penchant for classical inspiration although this was a loose association where the number of daughters was reduced from 49 to 5 and the artist's task did not seem to be nearly as cruel as the mythological one.