GRACES (Lat. Gratin', Gk. Xciptres,Charites). In Greek mythology, originally goddesses of heavenly light, who bring fertility to the fields, and joy to men. Like all such divinities, they are at first anonymous and of varying num ber, and this is reflected in the local variations in their cult and names throughout Greece. At Orchomenus, in Bceotia, they had a very vener able shrine, where they were worshiped under the form of three stones, said to have fallen from heaven. In Hesiod we find them called Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, and these names attached themselves to the Orchomenian cult, and later spread through Greece. At Sparta they were two in number, Kleta and Pha'enna, and the same number seems original at Athens, where the names were Auxo and Hegemone; later Thallo, originally one of the Horne (q.v.), was joined with them, and this triad appears in the oath taken by the Athenian ephebi. Their early connection with the bloom of nature was soon obscured by the conception of goddesses of the joy of life and beauty, present at the dances and feasts of the gods, and closely joined with Hera, as marriage goddess, and above all with Aphro dite. The legend represented them as daughters
of Zeus and Eurynome. In art the triad pre vails, and until the end of the fourth century they always appear fully draped. In the third century the growing connection with Aphrodite leads to a change; they now appear slightly draped, or wholly nude, and usually embracing one another, or clasping hands.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Usener, GOtternamen. (Bonn, Bibliography. Usener, GOtternamen. (Bonn, 1896) ; Furtwiingler in Roscher, Lexikon der griechischen and romisehen Mythologic (Leipzig, 1884.86) ; Preller-Robert, Griechische Mytho logic (Berlin, 1894) ; Escher, in Pauly-Wissowa, Teealeneyklopiidie (Stuttgart, 1889), very full references. For the view that there were three charites at Athens, consult Robert, "De Gratiis Atticis," in Commentationes in Honorcm Montm seni (Berlin, 1877).