Graeae

The Graeae (Graiai, “the old women”) were sisters, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, grey-haired from birth, and sisters of the Gorgons. Their best-known story is that they shared a single eye and a single tooth, which Perseus seized on his way to kill Medusa. Hesiod names two of them, Pemphredo and Enyo; Apollodorus names three, Enyo, Pephredo and Dino.

Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo

Hesiod names only two Graiai: Pemphredo, “well-clad”, and Enyo, “saffron-robed” (Theogony 270–273). Apollodorus lists three, Enyo, Pephredo and Dino (Library 2.4.2); the spellings Deino and Pemphredo are the same names in a more common form. Enyo is also the name of a war goddess in the poets (for example Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 45), but no source says that the Graia is the same figure. Ovid speaks of only two sisters, who shared the use of one eye (Metamorphoses 4.774–775), while Aeschylus calls them “the Phorcides” and says there were three (Prometheus Bound 794–796).

Origin and Family

Hesiod says that Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiai, “grey from their birth”, so called by gods and men alike; they were followed in the same passage by the Gorgons Sthenno, Euryale and Medusa (Theogony 270–276). Of the Gorgons, only Medusa was mortal; Poseidon lay with her, and when Perseus cut off her head, Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus sprang out (Theogony 276–281). Apollodorus likewise calls the Graiai “old women from their birth” and sisters of the Gorgons (Library 2.4.2). Their name, and the later “Phorcides” (daughters of Phorcys), come from these facts.

Where They Lived

The ancient authors give different places. In Aeschylus they live on the Gorgon plains of Cisthene, in the far east, where the old Phorcides, swan-shaped and with only one tooth between them, are never seen by the sun’s rays or by the moon at night; the three winged, snake-haired Gorgons live close by (Prometheus Bound 793–800). Hesiod puts the Gorgons beyond glorious Ocean, at the edge of the world toward Night, where the Hesperides are (Theogony 274–275). In Ovid, Perseus describes a place under cold Atlas, protected by a mass of solid rock, at whose entrance two sisters shared the use of one eye (Metamorphoses 4.772–775).

Role in the Myth of Perseus

Polydectes sent Perseus to fetch the head of the Gorgon. Guided by Hermes and Athena, Apollodorus says, Perseus went to the daughters of Phorcys. The three had one eye and one tooth, which they passed to each other in turn. Perseus took possession of the eye and the tooth, and when they asked for them back he said he would give them up if they showed him the way to the nymphs. These nymphs had winged sandals and the kibisis, a wallet, and also the cap of Hades. The Graiai showed him the way; he gave back the eye and tooth, went to the nymphs, and got what he wanted. The Graiai themselves did not own these objects; they were only the guides to the nymphs who did. Perseus then received an adamantine sickle from Hermes, and flew to the Ocean and found the Gorgons asleep (Library 2.4.2).

Ovid, in Perseus’ own words, has him take the eye by a trick while it was being handed over, putting his hand under it (Metamorphoses 4.776–777), and then travel through hidden, pathless places to the house of the Gorgons.

In another version, Hyginus, quoting Aeschylus’ play Phorcides, says the Graeae were the guards of the Gorgons and used a single eye in turn. When one handed it to the other, Perseus caught it and threw it into the Tritonian marsh, so that, with the guards blinded, he could easily kill the sleeping Gorgon (Astronomica 2.12).

The Shared Eye and Tooth

The ancient sources say what the Graiai shared, and no more: one eye and one tooth, passed in turn (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2), and in Aeschylus a common eye and a single tooth (Prometheus Bound 795–796). The sources do not give the eye or the tooth any symbolic meaning.

The Graeae in Greek Culture and Literature

The Graiai have no cult and no stories apart from their part in the Perseus myth. They are named in the genealogy of Hesiod, described in the geography of Aeschylus, and used in the narrative of Apollodorus and Ovid.

Graeae Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 270–281; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 794–800; Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.772–786; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.12.

See Also: Phorcys, Ceto, Gorgons, Perseus, Medusa, Hermes, Athena, Pegasus