In
Greek mythology, the Graeae (
Ancient Greek: Γραῖαι; /ˈɡriːiː/;
English translation: "old women", alternatively spelled Graiai and Graiae) were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them.[1] They were also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides ("daughters of
Phorcys")[2]
Names
Their names were:
Deino (or Dino) (Δεινώ)
Enyo (Ἐνυώ)
Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ) or Pephredo (Πεφρηδώ)
Etymology
The word Graeae is probably derived from the adjective γραῖαgraia "old woman", derived from the
Proto-Indo-European root *ǵerh₂-*ǵreh2-, "to grow old" via
Proto-Greek: *gera-/grau-iu.[3]
Mythology
The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities
Ceto and
Phorcys (from which their name the Phorcydes derived) and sisters to the
Gorgons.[4] The Graeae took the form of old, grey-haired women. Their age was so great that a human childhood for them was hardly conceivable. In Theogony, however,
Hesiod describes the Graeae as being "fair-cheeked". In Prometheus Bound, the Graeae are described as being swan-shaped ("κυκνόμορφοι")[5]
Hesiod names only two Graeae, the "well-clad" Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ "alarm") and the "saffron-robed" Enyo (Ἐνυώ).[6]Pseudo-Apollodorus lists Deino (Δεινώ "dread", the dreadful anticipation of horror) as a third.[7] Calling them "Phorcides",
Hyginus, in addition to Pemphredo and Enyo, adds Persis noting that "for this last others say Dino".[8]
They shared one eye and one tooth, which they took turns using. By stealing their eye while they were passing it among themselves, the hero
Perseus forced them to tell the whereabouts of the three objects needed to kill
Medusa (in other versions, the whereabouts of Medusa) by ransoming their shared eye for the information.[4]
^
Most sources describe Medusa as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author
Hyginus (
Fabulae Preface) makes Medusa the daughter of
Gorgon and Ceto.
^R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 285.
^
abHarris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (Third Edition). California State University, Sacramento. Mayfield Publishing Company. 2000, 1998, 1995, pp. 273–274, 1039.
^Homer. Odyssey.
1.70–73. names Thoosa as a daughter of Phorcys, without specifying her mother.
Bibliography
Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.