Graeae

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Three sisters in Greek myth

title: "Graeae" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mythological-blind-people", "greek-goddesses", "greek-mythological-witches", "mythological-trios", "legendary-creatures-with-absent-body-parts", "sister-trios", "crones-and-hags"] description: "Three sisters in Greek myth" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeae" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Three sisters in Greek myth ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Edward_Burne-Jones_-_Perseus_and_the_Graiae,_1892.jpg" caption="''[[Perseus]] and the Graeae'' by [[Edward Burne-Jones]] (1892)"] ::

The Graeae (alternatively spelled Graiai; ; Graiai, ,), also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides (), were three sisters of Greek mythology who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them. They were the daughters of the primordial sea gods Phorcys and Ceto and sisters of, among others, the Gorgons. Their names were Deino (Δεινώ), Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ), and Enyo (Ἐνυώ; not to be confused with the war goddess, Enyo). They are best known from their encounter with Perseus, who, after capturing their eye, forced them to reveal information about the Gorgons.

Etymology

The Greek Graiai is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ǵreh2-, "to grow old" via .

Mythology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Fuseli_perseus.jpg" caption="''[[Perseus]] Returning the Eye of the Graiai'' by [[Henry Fuseli"] ::

The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities Ceto and Phorcys (from which their name the Phorcydes derived) and sisters to the Gorgons. 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 "ancient maidens of swan-like aspect" (κυκνόμορφοι; perhaps here meaning "white-haired").

Hesiod names only two Graeae, the "well-clad" "Pemphredo" (Πεμφρηδώ "alarm") and the "saffron-robed" Enyo (Ἐνυώ), while Apollodorus lists Deino (Δεινώ "dread", the dreadful anticipation of horror) as a third. Calling them "Phorcides", Hyginus, in addition to Pemphredo and Enyo, adds Persis, noting that "for this last others say Dino".

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.

Genealogy

Main article: Greek sea gods

|GAI=Gaia |boxstyle_GAI=background-color: #fbb}} |PONT=Pontus |boxstyle_PONT=background-color: #bbf; |CETO =Ceto |EURYB =Eurybia |NERE=Nereus |PHORC =Phorcys |THAUM =Thaumas |boxstyle_CETO =background-color: #fbb; |boxstyle_EURYB =background-color: #fbb; |boxstyle_NERE=background-color: #bbf; |boxstyle_PHORC =background-color: #bbf |boxstyle_THAUM =background-color: #bbf |ECH=Echidna |GORG=The Gorgons |GRAE=The Graeae |HESP=The Hesperides |LAD=Ladon |SIR=The Sirens |THOO=Thoosa |boxstyle_ECH=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_GORG=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_GRAE=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_HESP=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_LAD=background-color: #bbf |boxstyle_THOO=background-color: #fbb |STHEN=Stheno |DEINO=Deino |boxstyle_STHEN=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_DEINO=background-color: #fbb |EURY=Euryale |ENYO=Enyo |boxstyle_EURY=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_ENYO=background-color: #fbb |MED=Medusa{{efn| name=Medusa| 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. |PEM=Pemphredo |boxstyle_MED=background-color: #fbb |boxstyle_PEM=background-color: #fbb

Notes

References

Bibliography

Aeschylus, (?), Prometheus Bound in Aeschylus: Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
Aeschylus. Fragments. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 505. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. . 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, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. . 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, Massachusetts, 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, . "Graeae" p. 175.
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.
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"

References

Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html Preface].
[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=graeae-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Graeae]
[[Robert S. P. Beekes. R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 285.
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.
[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.531.xml 795 with n. 95].
Sometimes also spelled Peuphredo ({{lang. grc. Πευφρηδώ) or Pephredo ({{lang. grc
[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D270 270-274]
[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
[[Gaius Julius Hyginus. Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html Preface]
[[Homer]]. "[[Odyssey]]".

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