Triada - rehearsal

Choreography by Anah Sari © Special choeography for Caryatids Dance Group at Dora Stratou Greek Dance Company, Athens, Greece ------------------------- The moon’s three phases of new, full and old, recalled the matriarch’s three phases of maiden, nymph (nubile woman) and crone. Then, since the sun’s annual course similarly recalled the rise and decline of her physical powers—spring a maiden, summer a nymph, winter a crone—the goddess became identified with seasonal changes in animal and plant life; and thus with Mother Earth who, at the beginning of the vegetative year, produces only leaves and buds, then flowers and fruits, and at last ceases to bear. She could later be conceived as yet another triad: the maiden of the upper air, the nymph of the earth or sea, the crone of the Underworld—typified respectively by Selene, Aphrodite and Hecate. These mystical analogues fostered the sacredness of the number three, and the Moon-goddess became enlarged to nin