Graeae

Today on “Creatures from HELLas” I would like to introduce you to three creatures called Graeae. Maybe you will find out if those creatures are either part of the Greek mythology or just something the movie industry or I made up in my mind.

The word “graeae” could be translated as “old women” into English.

The Graeae are three sisters called Deino (dread), Enyo (horror) and Pemphredo (alarm) who share one eye and one tooth among them. As you can probably imagine they weren’t the most beautiful women.
 
A seagod called Phorcys is their father which is why they are also called Phorcydes and are seen as goddesses.
Besides that they are also the sisters of the Gorgons (three sisters who had hair made out of living snakes).
The three sisters where actually already born toothless, having empty eye sockets and grey hair so basically from day one of their lifes they were the “old women” or “grey witches” as some people like to call them.

The eye they shared among them was the special thing about them because it gave them great wisdom and knowledge but that was also the one thing about them which made them really vulnerable for any enemies and that is the reason why they are responsible for the death of one of the Gorgons called Medusa.

As the goddess Athena cursed the Gorgons it was the task of Perseus to kill one of them (Medusa). The Graeae were the only ones who knew where the Gorgons were, thanks to their great knowledge. Perseus knew that so he stole the eye of the three sisters and threatened them to throw it into a swamp if they wouldn’t tell him where Medusa was.

Now it’s your turn to find out if the story I just told you about the Graeae is actually from the Greek mythology or if I just made that up as I might have just changed the characters of the “Three Witches” who are part of William Shakespeares’ play “Macbeth” a little bit and made you believe that this is an ancient Greek story.