The Graeae (also spelled Graiai; Ancient Greek Γραῖαι, "old women"), also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides ("daughters of Phorcys"), were sisters of Greek mythology who had grey hair from their birth and shared a single eye and a single tooth among them. They were daughters of the primordial sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, and sisters of the Gorgons. Their names were Deino, Pemphredo, and Enyo (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.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Graeae" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Etymology
The Greek Graiai is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵerh₂- (*ǵreh₂-), "to grow old," reaching Greek via Proto-Greek *gera-/grau-iu. The name thus means literally "old women."
Beyond this primary name, the sisters bear additional appellations: the Grey Sisters, after their grey hair, and the Phorcides (or Phorcydes), "daughters of Phorcys," derived from their father's name.
II.Mythology
The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities Ceto and Phorcys (from which their name the Phorcydes derived) and sisters to the Gorgons. They took the form of old, grey-haired women, their age so great that a human childhood for them was hardly conceivable. In the Theogony, however, Hesiod describes the Graeae as being "fair-cheeked." In Prometheus Bound, they are described as "ancient maidens of swan-like aspect" (κυκνόμορφοι), a phrase perhaps meaning "white-haired."
Hesiod names only two Graeae: the "well-clad" Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ, "alarm") and the "saffron-robed" Enyo (Ἐνυώ). Apollodorus lists Deino (Δεινώ, "dread," the dreadful anticipation of horror) as a third. Calling them "Phorcides," Hyginus adds, in addition to Pemphredo and Enyo, a sister named Persis, noting that "for this last others say Dino."
The sisters 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 herself), ransoming their shared eye for the information.
III.Genealogy
The Graeae are placed within the brood of primordial sea deities descended from Gaia and Pontus. Their parents are Phorcys and Ceto, and their best-known siblings are the Gorgons (Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa).
The wider Phorcys–Ceto lineage in the genealogical tradition also includes such figures as Ladon (the serpent of the Hesperides' garden), the Hesperides, and Thoosa, situating the Graeae among the monstrous and chthonic offspring of the early sea gods.