#three graces

Roman cameo of the three Graces

1st century CE

The Three Graces: See, hear, and speak no evil

While in the Hellenic period known to us, the Three Charites came to be associated with beauty, grace and art, in fact their cult has much more ancient and chthonic roots.

The cult of the Charites is very old, with their name appearing to be of Pelasgian, or pre-Greek, origin rather than being brought to Greece by Proto-Indo-Europeans. The purpose of their cult appears to be similar to that of nymphs, primarily based around fertility and nature with a particular connection to springs and rivers. [Breitenberger, Barbara (2007). "Goddesses of Grace and Beauty: the Charites"] In some cults, they were also associated with the Underworld, Elysium, and even the Eleusinian mysteries. Pausanias in his Description of Greece wrote about that:

At the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, there were three Charites, "by their side are celebrated mysteries which must not be divulged to the many".

In Messene, he records that the Charites were worshipped alongside the Erinyes.

Pausanias also wrote that initially the Charites were worshiped as three aniconic stones believed to have fallen from cosmos. It has been suggested that the original stone worship may have resulted from an astrological phenomenon. Specifically, there may have been a series of meteorites that were interpreted as a sign or representation of the gods or goddesses falling from heaven and descending upon earth during the time of Eteocles.

Piece of evidence for their chthonic nature also comes from the island of Paros. An aetiological myth, recorded by Apollodorus and referenced by the poet Callimachus, explains a unique local practice:

The story goes that King Minos of Crete was sacrificing to the Graces on Paros when he received the news of his son's death in Athens. In his grief, he stopped the music of the flutes and tore off his garland, but he completed the sacrifice. From then on, the Parians sacrificed to the Charites without flutes and without garlands. The absence of music and garlands which were symbols of joy and festivity shows a somber, chthonic ritual rather than an Olympian one.

The lexicographer Julius Pollux (2nd century CE) in his Onomasticon notes that one could swear by the Charites, just as one did by the deities of the "lower world". Invoking a deity in a binding oath is a practice typically reserved for solemn, often underworld, powers who could enforce the curse that would follow perjury.

The Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition) offers a scholarly synthesis of these ideas, noting that the Charites, in their ancient form, were goddesses "of fertility and growth". It explicitly states that, in this regard, the singular goddess Charis "closely resembles Persephone", the queen of the underworld. It further notes that in later art, the Charites often hold corn ears in their hands, a symbol of agricultural fertility tied to the earth's bounty and the cycles of life and death.

During the Hellenistic period, the connection between the Charites and the chthonic forces had become almost completely obscure, but in some myths, at least a distant connection between them can still be traced. For example, in his Iliad, Homer describes an agreement between Hypnos and Hera that she would promise one of the Younger Charites, Pasithea, as a possible bride for Hypnos if he agreed to help her. This once again links at least one of the Younger Charites to the chthonic forces.

This gives an interesting perspective, where the originally chthonic goddesses of nature and growth also became associated with beauty and grace.

Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl (1860-1933) - Drei Grazien in der brandung

Oil on canvas. Painted in 1893.

23.4 x 41.9 inches, 59.5 x 106.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 10,000-15,000.