Mythography | The Erinyes - Furies

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Erinyes at a Glance

name | Erinyes or Furies (’ErinueV)

role | spirits who exacted vengeance against those who committed specific crimes

Erinyes in Greek Mythology

"The Furies, in Greek Erinyes, or euphemistically Eumenides, were avenging spirits of retributive justice. Their names, when in course of time their number had come to be fixed as three, were Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. Their task was to punish crimes not within the reach of human justice.

Through Aeschylus the tradition developed that after the time when they had intervened in the case of Orestes, their functions no longer covered cases of "guiltiness" free from moral guilt. In spite of their inexorable sternness, they wept when they heard Orpheus implore the deities of the underworld to restore Eurydice to life."

- from Bulfinch's Mythology

The Erinyes were called Furiae in Roman mythology.

Erinyes in Art History

Gallery | For pictures and information about the Erinyes (Furies) in art, visit the Mythography gallery!

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Who's Who in Classical Mythology

This book is a great source for information about Greek and Roman mythology! Organized alphabetically, this who's who features information about over 1200 of the most intriguing characters from Classical myth and legend.

The Bibliography

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