ERINYES, EUMENIDES (Furiæ, Diræ)

ERINYES, EUMENIDES (Furiæ, Diræ).

The Erinyes or Furies were female divinities who personified the
torturing pangs of an evil conscience, and the remorse which inevitably
follows wrong-doing.

Their names were Alecto, Megæra, and Tisiphone, and their origin was
variously accounted for. According to Hesiod, they sprang from the blood
of Uranus, when wounded by Cronus, and were hence supposed to be the
embodiment of all the terrible imprecations, which the defeated deity
called down upon the head of his rebellious son. According to other
accounts they were the daughters of Night.

Their place of abode was the lower world, where they were employed by
Aïdes and Persephone to chastise and torment those shades who, during
their earthly career, had committed crimes, and had not been reconciled
to the gods before descending to Hades.

But their sphere of action was not confined to the realm of shades,
for they appeared upon earth as the avenging deities who relentlessly
pursued and punished murderers, perjurers, those who had failed in duty
to their parents, in hospitality to strangers, or in the respect due to
old age. Nothing escaped the piercing glance of these terrible
divinities, from whom flight was unavailing, for no corner of the earth
was so remote as [139]to be beyond their reach, nor did any
mortal dare to offer to their victims an asylum from their
persecutions.

The Furies are frequently represented with wings; their bodies are
black, blood drips from their eyes, and snakes twine in their hair. In
their hands they bear either a dagger, scourge, torch, or serpent.

When they pursued Orestes they constantly held up a mirror to his
horrified gaze, in which he beheld the face of his murdered mother.

These divinities were also called Eumenides, which signifies the
“well-meaning” or “soothed goddesses;” This appellation was given to them
because they were so feared and dreaded that people dared not call them
by their proper title, and hoped by this means to propitiate their
wrath.

In later times the Furies came to be regarded as salutary agencies,
who, by severely punishing sin, upheld the cause of morality and social
order, and thus contributed to the welfare of mankind. They now lose
their awe-inspiring aspect, and are represented, more especially in
Athens, as earnest maidens, dressed, like Artemis, in short tunics
suitable for the chase, but still retaining, in their hands, the wand of
office in the form of a snake.

Their sacrifices consisted of black sheep and a libation composed of a
mixture of honey and water, called Nephalia. A celebrated temple was
erected to the Eumenides at Athens, near the Areopagus.