Pyxis Ática from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens showing Perseus stealing the eye from three Grææ The Grææ were three sisters who lived in the Western extreme of the ocean. Their names were Deino, Pephredo, and Enyo, which mean "alarm," "dread," and "horror." They were the daughters of Phorkys and Keto. The Graea shared one eye and one tooth among one another and were believed to be hideous looking creatures. They dwelt near the entrance to the Underworld, and were the gaurdians of the Gorgons. They protected the nymphs, who protected Hades' invisible helmet and a pair of winged sandals belonging to Hermes. They also oversaw the safety of the shield of Athena.
Harrison, Prolegomena:
The Graiae appear, so far as I know, only once in vase-paintings, on the cover of a pyxis in the Central Museum at Athens, reproduced in fig. 35.
They are sea-maidens, as the dolphins show; old Phorkys their father is seated near them, and Poseidon and Athene are present in regular Athenian fashion. Hermes has brought Perseus, and Perseus waits his chance to get the one eye as it is passed from hand to hand.
The eye is clearly seen in the hand outstretched above Perseus; one blind sister hands it to the other. The third holds in her hand the fanged tooth.
The vase-painter will not have the Graiae old and loathsome, they are lovely maidens; he remembers that they were white-haired from their youth.
The account given by Aeschylus of the Gorgons helps to explain their nature:
'None may behold, and bear their breathing blight.'
They slay by a malign effluence, and this effluence, tradition said, came from their eyes. Athenaeus quotes Alexander the Myndian as his authority for the statement that there actually existed creatures who could by their eyes turn men to stone.
Some say the beast which the Libyans called Gorgon was like a wild sheep, others like a calf; it had a mane hanging over its eyes so heavy that it could only shake it aside with difficulty; it killed whomever it looked at, not by its breath but by a destructive exhalation from its eyes.
What the beast was and how the story arose cannot be decided, but it is clear that the Gorgon was regarded as a sort of incarnate Evil Eye. The monster was tricked out with cruel tusks and snakes, but it slew by the eye, it fascinated.
The Evil Eye itself is not frequent on monuments; the Gorgoneion as a more complete and more elaborately decorative horror attained a wider popularity. But the prophylactic Eye, the eye set to stare back the Evil Eye, is common on vases, on shields and on the prows of ships.
