Graien
The Graiai ( ancient Greek γραῖαι , old women ) named Pemphredo, Enyo and Deino are the daughters of Phorkys and Ketos . They are known in Greek mythology as the three sisters of the Gorgons or also as "the grays" because they have been gray-haired since birth. The Graien are apparently nothing more than age personified.
To distinguish them from other aged goddesses, such as the Moiren , they are also referred to as the "Graeae des Phorkys", "Phorkids" or "Phorkyads". They were born as old women and shared a tooth and an eye, which they left to each other if necessary. In their abode, a cave at the foot of the Atlas , neither the sun nor the moon shone - an indication that a great deal was asked of Perseus when he had to meet them.
Perseus outsmarts them in his search for the gorgon Medusa , whose whereabouts only the Graces know, by offering them to hold their eyes and teeth so that they can eat the food they crave. Perseus is now blackmailing them: Either they tell him where to find Medusa, or all three remain blind and toothless. After receiving the information, he will probably give them back the tooth, but throws his eye into the Triton Sea , so that they have to dive for it and the nymphs who live nearby are finally freed from the stench of the Graien by this forced bath.
An alternative course of action is shown by Karl Kerényi : The Graien keep watch individually at the entrance to the gardens of the Hesperides , so they have to give each other one eye when the watch changes and are all blind at this point in time. Perseus - additionally under the protection of his magic hat - waits for this moment and steals the Graien's eye in order to make them vulnerable to blackmail. Hesiod knows only two graces, namely the "beautifully clad" Pemphredo and the " saffron- clad" Enyo and emphasizes their beautiful face. According to another story, the Graien are swan-like aged virgins .
literature
- Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 4, 2, 3.
- Hesiod , Theogony 270 f.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Faust. The tragedy part two: second act, from verse 7965.
- Adolf Rapp : Graiai . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,2, Leipzig 1890, Sp. 1729-1738 ( digitized version ).
- Karl Kerényi : The Mythology of the Greeks - The Gods and Human Stories . Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-423-30030-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Herbert J. Rose : Greek Mythology - A Handbook , p. 28. Verlag CH Beck , Munich, 2003. ISBN 978-3-406-494581 .
