Galaxy/The codex of Enyo (Graeae)

In Greek mythology, Enyo (Ancient Greek Ἐνυώ) is one of the Graeae, the grey sisters who share a single eye and a single tooth. Hesiod names her the "saffron-robed" Graia beside well-clad Pemphredo as a fair-cheeked daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, grey from birth and sister of the Gorgons. Apollodorus counts her among the three sisters whom Perseus tricks for the path to Medusa. She is not the war goddess Enyo associated with Ares.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Graeae" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Family

Hesiod's Theogony places Enyo among the children of the sea: Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth, and the Gorgons. Hesiod names only two Graeae — Pemphredo and saffron-robed Enyo. Apollodorus later lists three: Enyo, Pephredo (Pemphredo), and Deino.

As a Phorcid she belongs to the same monstrous sea brood as the Gorgons Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.

II.Mythology

The Graeae appear as aged women who share one eye and one tooth. In the Perseus saga the hero seizes the eye as the sisters pass it among themselves and ransoms it for directions to Medusa or to the gear needed to kill her.

In Prometheus Bound the Graeae are called "ancient maidens of swan-like aspect," a phrase often taken to mean white-haired. Enyo has no independent plot beyond her role in this shared catalogue and encounter.

III.Homonyms

This atlas entry (enyo-graea) is the Graia, not the Olympian or Ares-linked war goddess Enyo. Keep the two figures distinct: the war goddess is a divinity of battle-din; the Graia is a grey sister of the Gorgons who shares an eye and a tooth with Pemphredo and (in Apollodorus) Deino.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameEnyō (Ἐνυώ)
Roman nameEnyo
Typecreature
Domainsgrey from birth · sister of the Gorgons · the saffron-robed Graia
ParentagePhorcys · Ceto
EtymologyThe name Enyo (Ἐνυώ) is shared with the war goddess; for the Graia the epithet that defines her in Hesiod is "saffron-robed" (κροκόπεπλος). The sisters as a group are Graiai ("old women") or Phorcides ("daughters of Phorcys").
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