Bulfinch’s Mythology · Chapter
The Graeae and the Gorgons explained
This chapter introduces the Graeae, three gray-haired sisters, and the Gorgons, monstrous females with swine-like teeth, brazen claws, and snaky hair.
What happens
This chapter introduces the Graeae, three gray-haired sisters, and the Gorgons, monstrous females with swine-like teeth, brazen claws, and snaky hair. It focuses on Medusa, the most famous Gorgon, and presents a modern theory that the Gorgons and Graeae personify the terrors of the sea—the Gorgons representing strong billows and the Graeae white-crested waves.
Key passages
“The Graeae were three sisters who were gray-haired from their birth, whence their name.”
The Graeae were three sisters born with gray hair, which is how they got their name.
Explains the origin of the Graeae's name based on their appearance.
“The Gorgons were monstrous females with huge teeth like those of swine, brazen claws, and snaky hair.”
The Gorgons were terrifying female creatures with large pig-like teeth, bronze claws, and hair made of snakes.
Describes the physical traits of the Gorgons.
“We mention them chiefly to introduce an ingenious theory of some modern writers, namely, that the Gorgons and Graeae were only personifications of the terrors of the sea, the former denoting the strong billows of the wide open main, and the latter the white-crested waves that dash against the rocks of the coast.”
We bring them up mainly to present a clever idea from some modern authors: that the Gorgons and Graeae are simply symbols of the ocean's dangers, with the Gorgons representing powerful open-sea waves and the Graeae representing white-capped waves crashing against coastal rocks.
Introduces a symbolic interpretation of the Gorgons and Graeae as sea phenomena.