Phorcys’s Family Tree

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Family

• Ceto(spouse),Echidna(child),Euryale(child),Gorgons(child),Graeae(child),Ladon(child),Medusa(child),Stheno(child)— Consort

  Phorcys and Ceto, ancient sea deities, produced a brood of monsters: the Gorgons (Medusa, Euryale, Stheno), the Graeae, Echidna, Scylla, and the dragon Ladon.

  ⚠ Hesiod Theogony 295-303 does not explicitly name Echidna's parents; the antecedent of 'she' is debated. Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 2.1.2) gives Tartarus and Gaia as Echidna's parents instead.

• Gaia(parent),Pontus(parent),Ceto(sibling),Eurybia(sibling),Nereus(sibling),Thaumas(sibling)— Consort

  In Hesiod's Theogony, Pontus and Gaia produced five sea deities: Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. These siblings represent the ancient powers of the sea, predating the Olympian order.

• Crataeis(spouse),Scylla(child)— Consort

  Phorcys and Crataeis bore Scylla, the six-headed monster that devours sailors from her cliff above the strait. Crataeis alone might be called upon to restrain her daughter from striking a second time.

  ⚠ Apollodorus (Epitome 7.20) gives variant parentages: Phorcys and Hecate, Phorcys and Crataeis, or Typhon and Echidna. Some later sources identify Crataeis with Hecate.

• Sirens(child)

  Phorcys sired the Sirens, binding them to the same brood of sea-born terrors that includes the Gorgons and Scylla.

  ⚠ The dominant tradition (Apollodorus, Ovid) names the river-god Achelous as the Sirens' father. The Phorcys genealogy appears in some scholiastic sources.

Associated with

• Ceto

  Ceto and Phorcys were both siblings and spouses, an ancient sea god and goddess whose union produced the most fearsome monsters of Greek mythology.

• Gorgons

  The Gorgons — Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa — were daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. Their father's primordial sea-nature was reflected in the terrible power of their gaze that turned mortals to stone.

• Graeae

  Phorcys's daughters the Graeae guarded the path to the Gorgons. Perseus tricked them by stealing the single eye and tooth they shared, forcing them to reveal the way to their sisters.

• Scylla

  Phorcys restored Scylla to life after Heracles killed her, burning her remains and raising her from the dead to resume her predation upon sailors passing through the strait.