Legendary Furies – Angry And Monstrous Women Of The Underworld

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - In Greek mythology, the Erinyes (also known as Furies) were three goddesses of revenge and retribution. The women resided in the underground world and were considered monstrous and evil.

Departing of Furies. Image credit: The Baldwin Project

These three sisters were called Alecto ("the angry"), Megaera ("the grudging"), and Tisiphone ("the avenger").

How the Furies were created remains unclear. According to one legend, they came from the blood of the Titan Uranus, when his son Cronus castrated him to take revenge for the loss of his siblings.

According to another legend, the Furies were Nyx's daughters, the night's symbolization, and a daughter of Chaos.

The "infernal goddesses" correspond to the Dirae in Roman mythology, and some suppose that they are called Furies in hell, Harpies on earth, and Dirae in heaven.

Orestes at Delphi, flanked by Athena and Pylades, among the Erinyes and priestesses of the oracle. Paestan red-figure bell-krater, c. 330 BC. Python (as painter) - Jastrow (2006) - Public Domain

Their appearance was remarkable and hideous. They had snakes for hair, dogs' heads, coal-black bodies, and bat wings. They had burning breath, and poisonous blood was dripping from their eyes. In their hands, they carry brass-studded scourges, and their victims die in torment.

The role of the Furies was to persecute crimes such as disrespect, injustice, perjury, arrogance, and, first and foremost- murder, especially the murder inside a family. The Furies were regarded as very evil because their lust for punishment knew no bounds, for they kept punishing a sinner even after his death until he finally showed remorse.

One of the most frequently repeated examples of ancient Greek literature featuring the Erinyes is found in examples that focus on the Orestes myth.

Orestes belonged to the third generation of the House of Atreus and was the last to suffer the curse of the Erinys, which plagued his house. As the story goes, Atreus and his brother Thyestes were rivals for the throne of Mycenae.

The Remorse of Orestes, where he is surrounded by the Erinyes. Image credit: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1862;  Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

When Atreus won the throne, Thyestes conspired against him, seducing his wife to gain possession of a golden ram that would win him the kingdom.

But his sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, drove him from the throne.

Atreus, however, returned from exile and regained his throne, expelling Thyestes. But, desiring a harsher penalty, he invited his brother back, murdered his two sons, and served them up before him as a meal. Later, Thyestes' son Aigisthos avenged this crime with the murder of Atreus.

When Agamemnon was away fighting the Trojan War, Aigisthos returned, seduced Agamemnon's queen Klytaimestra and conspired with her to murder the king upon his return. A curse fell upon the guilty pair, and his father's Erinys compelled the young Orestes to exact his vengeance.
Orestes himself was afterward plagued by the Erinys of his mother Klytaimestra for the crime of matricide until he was purified of the blood guilt by Apollo.

Erinyes are also Furies because their name in Greek mythology means "the angry ones."

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

Updated on October 29, 2022

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