Anger (Deino), Tempest (Persis or Perso), and Wasp (Pemphredo) are known as the Gray Sisters (also spelled Graeae, Graiae, Graiai, Graii), a trio of old women who share among them a single eye and a single tooth. They are the operators of a "taxi firm" which serves the Greater New York City and its inhabitants.
History[]
The Gray Sisters are the daughters of the minor sea gods Keto and Phorcys. The Gray Sisters have encountered the original demigod hero, Perseus. At one point of his journey, Perseus travels to see the Gray Sisters to find the location of Medusa. When he got there, the sisters were absolutely horrified when he asked for the information. Finally, he got so annoyed with them that he whacked the sister with the eye ball and yanked out the tooth. They begged for the tooth and eye back, but Perseus stood his ground. Mourning, they told him the location of Medusa and the three items he needed to defeat her: the shield of Athena, the winged sandals of Hermes, and the helm of Hades. Upon receiving the information, Perseus threw the eyeball into a lake, giving the Gray Sisters a lingering distrust for heroes.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians[]
The Sea of Monsters[]
Their car in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
Annabeth Chase hails the Gray Sisters' service as Percy Jackson, Tyson, and she are running from the authorities after Percy is blamed for "torching" the school gym at Meriwether College Prep due to an attack by Laistrygonian Giants. Annabeth took Percy and Tyson to the road and tossed a Golden Drachma into the road (it sank through) shouting: "Stêthi, Ô hárma diabolês!" ("Stop, Chariot of Damnation!") which summons the Chariot of Damnation. A few moments later, a taxi that looked as if it were made from smoke appeared from the ground and the trio climbed into the taxi. The drivers of the taxi reveal themselves to be the Gray Sisters and at first refuse to take Tyson (as they do not accept cyclopes), but Annabeth promises extra pay on arrival.
After agreeing to take them, the sister known as Wasp hits the gas, which forces Percy's head to slam against the headrest. As they rounded a corner, they quickly learn that Wasp, the driver, did not have the eye, which was shared between them. Tempest, instead yells directions and warnings if they were about to hit something. Meanwhile, Anger asked for the tooth so she could bite the drachma and make sure it was real, which leads Wasp to complain that Tempest did it last time. The three argue over the eye as Annabeth explains that the three share an eye between them, which greatly worries Percy as the cab drives up on curbs and through red lights.
The three sisters mention all the famous people they have had in their taxi, including the original Jason, but Wasp points out that that was before they even had the taxi. The three once again start fighting over the tooth and eye, but Annabeth tried to reassure Percy by calling them wise. The three agree they are wise and began to say all the things they know, including every street in New York, the capital of Nepal, and the location Percy was looking for (a location Percy did not even know he was looking for yet). Tempest's sisters were quick to shut her up as Percy had not asked about any location and Percy kept asking what they meant. They refused, as the last time they gave out information Perseus tossed their eye in that lake, it took them years to find it.
As the three continued to fight for the eye, Anger gets slapped on the back and the eye comes flying out and rolls under a seat, allowing Percy to grab it. They told him to give it back while Tempest began to accelerate out of control. Percy demands the information about the location, and the three sisters' give in. They tell him 30, 31, 75, 12, which Percy does not understand. However, he returns the eye to Wasp and they drop the three off at Camp Half-Blood. As soon as they see the Colchis Bulls attacking, they drive away without their extra pay Annabeth promised them. Later at the campfire, Percy figures out that the numbers were longitude and latitude coordinates, leading to the Sea of Monsters.
The Trials of Apollo []
The Tower of Nero[]
They transport Apollo and Meg McCaffrey to camp from Manhattan. Apollo also mentions the fact that the Gray Sisters once had a crush on him. After a few centuries they became smitten with Ganymede, cupbearer to the gods. Currently, the Gray Sisters are fangirling Deimos, god of fear and son of Ares and Aphrodite.
The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure[]
Having all rode with the Gray Sisters, Percy Jackson, Meg McCaffrey and Apollo have all repeatedly told Nico di Angelo that they prefer his Shadow Travel over the sisters' taxi. Nico also notes that the Gray Sisters have a long history of detesting heroes and, at this point, they view every inhabitant of Camp Half-Blood as a potential hero to be detested. However, having met them several times on his own, Nico secretly kind of likes them.
Chiron calls on the Gray Sisters to transport Kayla Knowles and Austin Lake into Manhattan, encouraging the two demigods to try tipping the Gray Sisters with a few extra drachmas at the start of the trip which he's heard makes the trip a bit less intense. When they arrive, the Gray Sisters are already arguing with each other, making Kayla and Austin look more frightened than they ever had in the last year, although the two reject Nico's offer of shadow travel instead. Austin pays Tempest with three drachmas, following Chiron's advice to tip her heavily. Kayla is optimistic that the taxi can't be any worse than the adventures that they've been on, but Austin is less certain.
Appearance[]
In Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, the Gray Sisters are described as old ladies wearing gray rags, with their hair looking like dirty straw, with their faces withered and sagging "like melted masks." They carry long knives under their rags.
In The Sea of Monsters, Percy describes each one of them as having a mop of grizzled hair covering her eyes, with bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress. Instead of eyes, they have closed, sunken eyelids, with their single shared eye being bloodshot and green, while their single shared tooth is a mossy yellow incisor. When one of them wears the eye in her socket, she stares at everything hungrily, as if her eye couldn't get enough of anything it saw. Percy describes their voices as weird and mumbling, like each one of them had just had a shot of Novocain.
Gray Sisters' Eye and Tooth[]
The three Gray Sisters' share one tooth and one eye between themselves. The two items normally lead to fights between them over who gets it but they normally take turns. While the tooth can be used to bite down on gold (most likely to test its authenticity), the eye is prized as it is the only way they can see. It is described as darting around hungrily, as if it cannot get enough to see. During the time when Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson were in their cab, Anger was the one driving, but Tempest was the one with the eye. The eye is their greatest weakness, as it has been used against them to gain information as it passes between hands.
Film[]
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters[]
The Grey Sisters' License
The Gray Sisters are portrayed by Missi Pyle, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Mary Birdsong. Annabeth whistles for the Chariot of Damnation. The Sisters announce that they only take drachmas and exact change only. They begin driving and the passengers in the back realize that none of them have eyes. Percy ends up getting hold of the eye and tells the Gray Sisters to give him information about his prophecy but instead, they provide him with the coordinates to Polyphemus's island in the Sea of Monsters. He gives them the eye in exchange for the information. Then, Annabeth whispers to Percy that she does not think they have enough money to pay. The Sisters stop the cab and throws them out calling them cheap. They reappear later in the film after Percy realizes the longitude and latitude coordinates he got from them was accurate and they exclaim that he's figured it out.
Trivia[]
- The Gray Sisters' eye has been used against them twice, once by Perseus and then by Percy, who was named after the former. It is eventually revealed in The Tower of Nero that the Grey Sisters cannot resist giving information, and that most of the eye incidents are actually setups, with them actually throwing the eye onto Apollo's lap to be "forced" into telling a prophecy.
- The sisters claim they have transported the original Jason, but the Gray Sisters are never mentioned in the tales of Jason.
- While Tempest is the one driving the taxi, she constantly asked Wasp for the eye. However, Anger was the one that actually had the eye, even though Wasp pointed out when Tempest almost hit something.
- Due to the fact that if one has the eye, the other two don't know who has the eye, which is why if the eye is snatched from them then they beg for it back. Due to the chaos of the driving, it could be possible that Tempest didn't know that Wasp had the eye, even when Wasp was shouting directions.
- The Graeae have sometime been mistaken for the Fates due to the fact that they are both elderly women with a large amount of wisdom. In the 1997 Disney film Hercules, a loose adaptation of the myths of Hercules, the Fates had to share one eye like the Gray Sisters.
- In Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, The Gray Sisters' only share an eye; all three of them have their own teeth.
- The Gray Sisters have the longest gap between the time they first appeared and the next time they appeared in the series, with a thirteen book gap from The Sea of Monsters to The Tower of Nero.
- Its been stated by Apollo that the Gray Sisters are one of the few beings that have power over prophecies that don't draw or receive this power from him.