GRACES (Greek, Charites, translated by the Romans Gratim), the goddesses of grace, from whom, according to Pindar, comes every thing beautiful and agreeable, through whom alone man becomes wise and glorious. They were the goddesses of heavenly light and seem to have been connected with bloom and fer tility, which would account for their being patrons of marriage and might also explain the fact that it was customary to swear by the graces who brought prosperity and probably would refuse to be personally favorable to one who swore falsely in their name. According to Hesiod, and most poets and mythologists, Zeus was their father, and Eurynome their mother. Hesiod gives them the names of Aglaia (bril liancy), Thalia (the blooming), and Euphrosyne (mirth). Homer mentions them in the as handmaids of Hera (Juno), but in the as those of Aphrodite. He conceived them as forming a numerous troop of attend ant goddesses, whose office it was to render happy the days of the immortals. Later poets considered them as allegorical images. 'They
not only improve corporeal charms, they have an influence also upon music, eloquence, poetry and other arts; and the execution of acts of benevolence and gratitude is likewise superin tended by them. Saint Paul uses the word grace in the old sense of the term, when he speaks of °the grace of God," that is the gift of God. He had in his mind the meaning cur rent in his day when the graces were still be lieved to be the bestowers of special gifts which we now designate as talents. In the earliest time,s the statues of the Graces repre sented clothed forms; at a later period they were represented as nude. They had many temples in Greece, partly dedicated to them alone, partly in common with other deities, particularly Aphrodite, the Muses, Eros, Hermes and Apollo. Their festivals were called, in Greece, Charisia; and libations of wine were offered them at meals. The most celebrated Graces of modern sculpture are those of Canova and Thorwaldsen.