Listed 12 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for destination: "PAROS Island KYKLADES".
The goddesses of grace (Il. 17.51, Od. 6.18). They were the followers and handmaids of Aphrodite (Od. 8.364, 18.194), who weaved her peplos (Il. 5.338). Homer does not number them, however he names only one of them, Pasithea (Od. 14.269 & 275).
...But he himself came to Athens and celebrated the games of the Panathenian festival, in which Androgeus, son of Minos, vanquished all comers. Him Aegeus sent against the bull of Marathon, by which he was destroyed. But some say that as he journeyed to Thebes to take part in the games in honor of Laius, he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous competitors. But when the tidings of his death were brought to Minos, as he was sacrificing to the Graces in Paros, he threw away the garland from his head and stopped the music of the flute, but nevertheless completed the sacrifice; hence down to this day they sacrifice to the Graces in Paros without flutes and garlands.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Mar 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Charites or Gratiae (Graces). Goddesses of grace, and of everything which lends charm and beauty to nature and human life. According to Hesiod, they are the offspring of Zeus and the daughter of Oceanus and Eurynome. Their names are Euphrosyne (Joy), Thalia (Bloom), and Aglaia (Brilliance). Aglaia is the youngest, and the wife of Hephaestus; for the inspiration of the Graces was deemed as necessary to the plastic arts as to music, poetry, science, eloquence, beauty, and enjoyment of life. Accordingly, the Graces are intimate with the Muses, with whom they live together on Olympus. They are associated, too, with Apollo, Athene, Hermes, and Peitho, but especially with Eros, Aphrodite, and Dionysus. Bright and blithe-hearted, they were also called the daughters of the Sun and of Aegle (Gleam). They were worshipped in conjunction with Aphrodite and Dionysus at Orchomenus in Boeotia, where their shrine was accounted the oldest in the place, and where their most ancient images were found in the shape of stones said to have fallen from heaven. It was here that the feast of the Charitesia was held in their honour, with musical contests. At Sparta, as at Athens, two Charites only were worshipped, Cleta, or Sound, and Phaenna, or Light; at Athens their names were Auxo (Increase) and Hegemone (Queen). It was by these goddesses, and by Agraulos daughter of Cecrops, that the Athenian youths, on receiving their spear and shield, swore faith to their country. The Charites were represented in the form of beautiful maidens, the three being generally linked hand in hand. In the older representations they are clothed; in the later, they are loosely clad or entirely undraped.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Three goddesses of happiness, beauty and feasts. The nymph Eurynome and Zeus were their parents and their names were Aglaia (Splendour), Euphrosyne (Delight) and Thalia (Blossom). They served Aphrodite and Eros and sang and danced for the gods together with the Muses to the music of Apollo's lyre.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
One of the Graces, that Hera promised to give as wife to Sleep (Il. 14.269 & 276).
Pasithea. One of the Charites, or Graces, also called Aglaia.
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