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Greek and Roman Mythology > The Graeae and Gorgons
The Graeae were three sisters who were gray-haired from their
birth, whence their name. The Gorgons were monstrous females
with huge teeth like those of swine, brazen claws, and snaky
hair. They also were three in number, two of them immortal, but
the other, Medusa, mortal. None of these beings make much figure
in mythology except Medusa, the Gorgon, whose story we shall next
advert to. 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. Their names in Greek signify the above epithets.
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