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Sisterhood and Strength

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  SISTERHOOD AND STRENGTH Scary sisters The Graeae, three sisters in Greek mythology, managed to survive by sharing one eye and one tooth, which is really rather impressive. Sadly it all went a bit downhill for them when Perseus stole the eye for blackmail purposes, but since the sisters’ names in translation are Dread, Horror and Alarm,  we needn’t really get too upset. Sisters as stock villains - wicked, ugly, conspiratorial, wild or seductive, regularly appear in literature, religion, history, show-business and folklore. The more wholesome sisters, the Marys and the Marthas, don’t get such good publicity. Cinderella certainly had a bad time with her sisters, but at least didn’t suffer the gruesome fate of Cordelia in ‘King Lear’, who had no support at all from her nasty sisters. Mary Tudor and Elizabeth 1 didn’t get on at all well; neither did Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Haviland.  The Weird Sisters definitely had it in for Macbeth, and ‘Whatever happened to Baby Jane?...