Note 171 — THE THEOGONY.
George Chapman translation
The Graiæ; from their birth-hour gray.] The circumstance of their being gray seems to be explained by a passage of Æschylus, who describes them as half-women, half-swans:
The Gorgonian plains Of Cisthine, where dwell the Phorcydes Swan-form’d, three ancient nymphs, one common eye Their portion. Prometheus Chained.
“This history relates to an Amonian temple founded in the extreme parts of Africa, in which there were three priestesses of Canaänitish race, who on that account are said to be in the shape of swans: the swan being the insigne under which their country was denoted. The notion of their having but one eye among them took its rise from a hieroglyphic very common in Ægypt and Canaän: this was the representation of an eye, which was engraved on the pediment of their temples.” Bryant.
The Gorgons were probably similar personages: they are described by Æschylus with wings and serpentine locks: attributes apparently borrowed from the emblematical devices in the temples of Ægypt. Gorgon was a title of Minerva at Cyrene in Lybia.