what were the graiae?

Question

i am doing a mythology project and im just wondering what the graiae were..what did they do?..what were they in charge of?

Answer 1

The Graeae ("old women", "gray ones", or "gray witches", alternatively spelled Graiai, Graiae, Graii ), were three sisters, one of several trinities of archaic goddesses in Greek mythology. The Graeae were daughters of Phorcys, one aspect of the "old man of the sea," and Ceto, and thus were among the Phorcydes, all of which were archaic beings either of the sea or chthonic deities. The Graeae took the form of three grey-haired old women, though poets might give them the euphemistic designation "beautiful." Their age was so great that a childhood for them was hardly conceivable.

Hesiod reports their names as Deino ("dread", the dreadful anticipation of horror), Enyo ("horror" the "waster of cities" who had an identity separate from this sisterhood) and Pemphredo ("alarm") (Theogony, 270 - 74; also Apollodorus,ii.4.2; sometimes spelled Porphredo). Like another set of crones at the oldest levels of both Germanic and Norse mythology, they had but one eye and one tooth among them. These were shared and the sisters took turns in using them. By stealing their eye while they were passing it between them, the hero Perseus forced them to tell the whereabouts of their sisters, the Gorgons, ransoming the seeing eye for the information.

The Graeae can be compared with the three spinners of Destiny (the Moirae), the northern European Norns, or the Baltic goddess Laima and her two sisters

Answer 2

In Greek mythology, the Graiae were a trilogy of sea deities, the daughters of Phorcys, and archaic sea god, and Ceto, a sea monster who was the personification of the dangers and terrors of the sea. The three sisters, extremely old and gray, and all blind. With the help of their one collective eye, they guraded the realm of their other sisters, the Gorgons.

Only the Graiae could help Perseus take Medusa's head, as Polydectes bid him. So to force them to talk, he stole the only eye and tooth that they share. Here Perseus tries to grab the eye as one of the Graiae hands it to the sister on the left, eager to use it. Athena, Hermes, and Phorkys, the father of Graiae, gorgons, and Poseidon, the beloved of Medusa, are observing the scene

Answer 3

Graiae Women

Answer 4

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/ax834

Do you mean an allusion in literature, film, etc.? In the wikipedia page it says that Hesiod, Apollodorus and Hyginus have mentioned something about the Graeae in their work. And it also says that there's an allusion to them in a 1981 movie called "Clash of the Titans". As to the painting itself being mentioned somewhere in literature, music or film, I'm very sorry but I have no idea. :(