GRACES. - From Lat. Gratiae, Gk. χάριτες, they are a symbol of beauty, givers of joy and generally of all that gladdens life. Hesiod (Theog., 907) makes them daughters of Zeus and of the Oceanid Eurynome (that is, according to the exegesis of the naturalistic school, of the sky and of the dawn) and gives their names: Euphrosyne (= Mirth), Aglaea (= Splendor), Thalia (= Blooming).
Because of this their meaning of complete gladness they are conceived as inseparable and, as such, represented at first holding one another by the hand, clothed in a long chiton, later embracing and nude, but with a nudity that is not provocative, which justifies the epithet given them by Horace (Od., 1, 4, 6) of decentes, in which are associated the ideas of comeliness and modesty. Pindar (Ol., 14, 1) extols them as givers of wisdom, of beauty, of splendor. In Athens they were venerated at the foot of the Acropolis, but the principal seat of their cult was at Orchomenus in Boeotia. Because of the affinity of number the Greeks often associated female divinities in ternary groups (cf. J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the study of greek religion, Oxford 1922, p. 286), and because of that of meaning the G. are often associated with the Horae, patronesses of the three seasons of the year, with the Nymphs and with the Muses. Their attributes are dice, flowers, musical instruments.
Bibliography3 worksStoll-Furtwängler, Charis, in W. H. Roscher, Lexikon, I, col. 873; Escher, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, III, col. 2150 ff.; P. Decharme, La mytho
BIBL.: Stoll-Furtwängler, Charis, in W. H. Roscher, Lexikon, I, col. 873; Escher, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, III, col. 2150 ff.; P. Decharme, La mythologie de la Grèce antique, Paris 1878, p. 217 ff.
Turchi, Nicola. “Grazie.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, coll. 1030–1031. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/grazie.
MLA
Turchi, Nicola. “Grazie.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 1030–1031. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/grazie.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec6_grazie,
author = {Turchi, Nicola},
title = {Grazie},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VI},
pages = {1030--1031},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/grazie}
}
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