Graeae

In Greek mythology, the Graeae ("old women"), alternatively spelled Graiai and Graiae, were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them. They were also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides ("daughters of Phorcys").
==Names==
Their names were
*Deino or Dino ("dread")
*Enyo
*Pemphredo or Pephredo ("alarm")
Hesiod names only two Graeae, the "well-clad" Pemphredo and the "saffron-robed" Enyo. Pseudo-Apollodorus lists Deino as a third. Calling them the Phorcides, Hyginus, in addition to Pemphredo and Enyo, adds Persis noting that "for this last others say Dino".
==Etymology==
The word Graeae is probably derived from the adjective γραῖα graia "old woman", derived from the Proto-Indo-European word for "to grow old".
== Mythology ==
The Graeae were daughters of the sea deities Phorcys and Ceto and sisters to the Gorgons. The Graeae took the form of old, gray-haired women. Their age was so great that a human childhood for them was hardly conceivable. In Theogony, however, Hesiod describes the Graeae as being "fair-cheeked". In Prometheus Bound, the Graeae are described as being swan-shaped.
They 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) by ransoming their shared eye for the information.
Category:Mythological blind people
Category:Greek goddesses
Category:Greek mythological witches