(), that is, " the old women." were daughters of
Phorcys and Ceto. They had grey hair from their birth. Hesiod (Prom. 819) also speaks of three Graeae. The Scholiast on Aeschylus (Prom. 793) describes the Graeae, or Phorcides, as he calls them, as having the figure
of swans, and he says that the three sisters had only one tooth and one eye in common, which
they borrowed from one another when they wanted them. It is conmmonly believed that the
Graeae, like other members of the family of Phorcys, were marine divinities, and
personifications of the white foam seen on the waves of the sea. (Comp. GORGO and PERSEUS.)