Graeae

Perseus Returning the Eye of the Graiai by Henry Fuseli

In Greek mythology the Graeae (/ˈɡraɪi/; English translation: "old women", "grey ones", or "grey witches"; alternatively spelled Graiai (Γραῖαι) and Graiae), also called the Grey Sisters, and the Phorcides ("daughters of Phorcys"),^[1] were three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among them. Their names were Deino (or Dino), Enyo, and Pemphredo (or Pephredo).

Etymology

The word Graeae is probably derived from the adjective γραῖα graia "old woman", derived from the PIE root *ǵerh₂-/*ǵreh₂-, "to grow old" via Proto-Greek *gera-/grau-iu.^[2]

Mythology

The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities Phorcys and Ceto, (from which their name the Phorcydes derived), and sisters to the Gorgons.^[3] The Graeae took the form of old grey-haired women; though, at times poets euphemistically described them as "beautiful." In other legends they are described as being half-swan. Their age was so great that a human childhood for them was hardly conceivable.

Hesiod names only two Graeae, the "well-clad" Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ "alarm") and the "saffron-robed" Enyo (Ἐνυώ "horror" the "waster of cities" who also had an identity separate from this sisterhood);^[4] Pseudo-Apollodorus added Deino (Δεινώ "dread", the dreadful anticipation of horror) as a third.^[5] Calling them Phorcides, Hyginus, in addition to Pemphredo and Enyo, adds Persis noting that "for this last others say Dino".^[6]

They shared one eye and one tooth, which they took turns using. By stealing their eye while they were passing it amongst 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 herself), by ransoming their shared eye for the information.^[3] One might compare the Graeae with the three spinners of Destiny, (the Moirai); the northern European Norns; or the Baltic goddess Laima and her two sisters; though all are distinct trios.

Family Tree

Gaia

Pontus

Thalassa

Nereus

Thaumas

Phorcys

Ceto

Eurybia

The Telchines

Halia

Aphrodite [7]

Echidna

The Gorgons

The Graeae

Ladon

The Hesperides

Thoösa

Stheno

Deino

Euryale

Enyo

Medusa[8]

Pemphredo

Modern depictions

• In Claimed by Shadow, Hunt the Moon, and Ride the Storm, the second, fifth and eighth Cassandra Palmer novels, the Graeae are depicted as doddering old women who can transform in an instant to protect the heroine.
• In the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there is a trio of old, powerful, mystical hags living in the bog who are called The Crones.
• In the video game Pandora's Tower, the old woman helping Ende and Ceres.
• In the video game Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, the player has to kill the Graeae in order to give their eye to Medea.
• In the film Clash of the Titans (and its 2010 remake) the Graeae are called the "Stygian Witches".
• In The Sea of Monsters, the second Percy Jackson & the Olympians novel, the "Grey Sisters" are taxi drivers operating in the New York area named Anger, Tempest, and Wasp.
• In the 1988 video game King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, the player must steal the eye from the three witches in order to barter it for a puzzle piece that is critical to solving the game.
• Their single eye of the Graeae is depicted as an aspect of the Fates in the 1997 Disney film Hercules.
• The Grey Sisters appear in an episode of the second series of Atlantis. Jason visits the seers to find out how to save Ariadne's life. He uses exactly the same method of stealing their eye as they are passing it between them before ransoming it for information as Perseus does in the original myths.
• In the NES videogame The Battle of Olympus

Notes

1. Sommerstein, p. 260, in Aeschylus. Fragments; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 790–800 (pp. 530–531) with n. 94; Apollodorus, 1.2.6; Hyginus, Fabulae Preface.
2. R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 285.
3. Harris, 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.
4. Hesiod, Theogony, 270-274.
5. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.4.2; Pemphredo, sometimes also spelled Peuphredo (Πευφρηδώ) or Pephredo (Πεφρηδώ) (see M. Hofinger, Lexicon Hesiodeum cum Indice Inverso, p. 533.
6. Hyginus, Fabulae Preface.
7. There are two major conflicting stories for Aphrodite's origins: Hesiod (Theogony) claims that she was "born" from the foam of the sea after Cronus castrated Uranus, thus making her Uranus' daughter; but Homer (Iliad, book V) has Aphrodite as daughter of Zeus and Dione. According to Plato (Symposium 180e), the two were entirely separate entities: Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos.
8. 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.

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Aeschylus. Fragments. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 505. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99629-8. Online version at Harvard University Press
• Aeschylus, Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99627-4. Online version at Harvard University Press
• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. "Graeae" p. 175.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Graeae"

External links

• The Theoi Project, "GRAIAI"