The Erinyes (also called the Furies, and euphemistically the Eumenides, the "Gracious Ones") were chthonic goddesses of vengeance in ancient Greek religion. They punished those who broke sacred oaths or committed grave offences against the natural order, above all kin-murder, and hounded the guilty relentlessly until they were appeased. Their number was eventually fixed at three—Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone—and they figure most prominently in Aeschylus's Oresteia, where they pursue the matricide Orestes and are persuaded by Athena to become honoured protectors of Athenian justice.
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I.Name and Origin
The name Erinyes is of uncertain origin, with proposed links to the verb orinein ("to raise, stir, excite") and the noun eris ("strife"). The word is attested in Mycenaean Greek in Linear B as e-ri-nu. The euphemistic title Eumenides, "the Kindly Ones," was preferred in worship to avoid attracting the goddesses' attention, in the same manner that Hades was addressed as Plouton, "the Rich One."
Ancient sources give conflicting accounts of their parentage. In Hesiod they are born from the drops of blood that fell on the Earth when Cronus castrated his father Uranus, emerging alongside the Giants and the Meliae. Other traditions name them daughters of Nyx (Night), of Earth and Phorcys, or of Eurynome and Cronus; Orphic literature makes them daughters of Hades and Persephone.
II.Function and Mythology
The Erinyes acted as enforcers of cosmic and social order, hearing complaints against the insolence of the young toward the aged, of children toward parents, of hosts toward guests, and of cities toward suppliants, and punishing such crimes by pursuing the offenders without rest. They were also invoked as witnesses and avengers of solemn oaths.
Their best-known appearance is in Aeschylus's Oresteia. Orestes kills his mother Clytemnestra to avenge his father, at the command of Apollo, and the Erinyes pursue him for the matricide. At Athens, Athena establishes a trial in which Apollo defends Orestes and the Erinyes prosecute; when the jury's vote is evenly split, Athena casts the deciding vote for acquittal. She then persuades the Erinyes to accept a new role as protectors of justice and of the city, where they are honoured under the name Semnai, the "Venerable Ones."
III.Appearance and the Three Furies
Descriptions of the Erinyes vary widely. They are generally imagined dressed in black and associated with night and darkness, dwelling in Erebus. Aeschylus's Eumenides describes them as wingless, with hatred dripping from their eyes and a monstrousness compared to that of Gorgons and Harpies, while Euripides and Virgil give them wings. They are frequently shown with snakes in their hair; Statius pictures Tisiphone shaded by a hundred horned snakes with a fiery vapour issuing from her mouth.
The number of the Erinyes was standardized at three by Virgil, who names them Alecto ("endless anger"), Megaera ("jealous rage"), and Tisiphone ("vengeful destruction"). All three appear in Virgil's Aeneid and later in Dante's Inferno.
IV.Cult and Worship
A sanctuary in Athens was dedicated to the Erinyes under the name Semnai, the "August Ones," situated near the Areopagus, the city's court for cases of murder. According to Pausanias, both citizens and foreigners offered sacrifices there, particularly those who had been acquitted at trial. The Orphic Hymns invoke them as powerful chthonic deities deserving of reverence.