Erinyes

### Summary

Vengeful goddesses who torment humans guilty of committing unforgivable sins and crimes.

### Origins

Greco-Roman Mythology

**Erinyes**, also called the **Furies**, are three goddess from Greco-Roman mythology who work as private torturers and executioners of Hades, tasked with the duty of tormenting humans who have committed horrid crimes.

## Overview

The **Erinyes** (sing. **Erinys**), also known as the **Furies**, were female chthonic deities of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. They correspond to the **Dirae** in Roman mythology. The Roman writer Maurus Servius Honoratus wrote that they are called "Eumenides" in hell, "Furiae" on earth, and "Dirae" in heaven.

According to Hesiod's *Theogony*, when the Titan Cronus castrated his father, Uranus, and threw his genitalia into the sea, the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood which fell on the earth (Gaia), while Aphrodite was born from the crests of sea foam. According to variant accounts, they emerged from an even more primordial level - from Nyx ("Night"), or from a union between air and mother earth, in Virgil's *Aeneid*, they are daughters of Pluto and Nox.

Their number is usually left indeterminate. Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto ("endless anger"), Megaera ("jealous rage"), and Tisiphone ("vengeful destruction"), all of whom appear in the *Aeneid*. Dante Alighieri followed Virgil in depicting the same three-character triptych of Erinyes.

Whilst the Erinyes were usually described as three maiden goddesses, the Erinys Telphousia was usually a by-name for the wrathful goddess Demeter, who was worshipped under the title of Erinys in the Arkadian town of Thelpousa.

## Summary

Millions of years ago, in the beginning of the Titan dynasty, the Erinyes were created by Ouranos to be guardians of honor, to enforce the Titans' authority and reinforce their laws upon humans. However, after Ouranos was overthrown by Kronos and Rhea, they were banished into Erebos to live among the shades and the chthonic gods.

While they were in Erebos, they were taken in by the gods of the Mansion of Night and became the adopted daughters of Nyx and Erebus. They also took up the duty of tormenting the shades who came there after their death for the crimes they committed in their past life.

During the Titanomachy, they swore an oath of loyalty to Hades and the new Olympian gods alongside other chthonic gods. Noticing their potential, Hades made them his personal executioners and private torturers. He gave them the duty of collecting information from captured prisoners, as well as hunting down defects and traitors among their ranks.

When the war was won in the Olympians' favor, the three returned to the underworld, having grown to see the chthonic realm as their new home. As part of their agreement with Hades, they got their original position as castigator back and are now in-charge of reinforcing the Olympians' laws among humanity.

## Trivia

* The name, Erinyes, have uncertained etymology, though it's believed to be connected to *orinein* ("to raise, stir, excite", and *eris* ("strife").
* Despite Alecto being the official leader due to her age, Megaera is the wisest, most mature, and most experienced of the three even though she's the youngest.
	+ According to Megaera, Alecto was chosen as leader only because she's the only Erinys who actually bother to do their courtly duties and paperwork.
* Serving as the Erinyes' retinue are the Poenae (Retaliations), Arae (Curses), Praxidice (Exacters of Justice), and the Maniae (Madnesses).
* In Greek mythology, the Erinyes are born from Ouranos' blood, making them half-sisters Aphrodite.
	+ In some myths, Nyx is said to be their only parent.
	+ In Orphic hymns, they are said to be daughters of Hades and Persephone.
* In Greek mythology, the Erinyes were often portrayed as monster-like goddesses, with snakes for hair, dog's heads, coal black bodies, bat's wings, and blood-shot eyes.
* In the story of *Canto VIII* of Dante's "Inferno", they confront the poets Dante and Virgil at the gates of the city of Dis. The heads of the Erinyes, whom the two poets met in Canto IV, were wreathed with serpents and their eyes dripped with blood, rendering their appearance rather horrific.