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by Micha F. Lindemans

The Charites, or Graces, are the personifications of charm and beauty in nature and in human life. They love all things beautiful and bestow talent upon mortals. Together with the Muses they serve as sources of inspiration in poetry and the arts. Originally, they were goddesses of fertility and nature, closely associated with the underworld and the Eleusinian mysteries.

Aglaea ("Splendor") is the youngest of the Graces and is sometimes represented as the wife of Hephaestus. The other Graces are Euphrosyne ("Mirth") and Thalia ("Good Cheer"). They are usually considered the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, or Dionysus and Aphrodite. According to Homer the Graces belonged to the retinue of Aphrodite.

The Romans knew them under the collective name of the Gratiae (qv).