FURY DEFINITION SERIES
More recendy, the trio appeared as recurring characters in the adventure television series Xena: Warrior Princess, and in a storyline of Neil Gaiman's comic series The Sandman. The Furies also appeared as characters in Jean-Paul Sartre's 1943 play The Flies, a retelling of the myth of Electra. The characters were the subject of a poem by Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle titled Les Erinnyes, written in 1872. Perhaps the most famous artistic depiction of the Furies is the 1862 painting The Remorse of Orestes by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. The Furies appeared in many Greek dramas, especially those concerning Orestes and Electra. The Furies in Art, Literature, and Everyday Life This suggests that the Furies' power is within the mind of the guilty party. It is significant that they do not physically punish wrongdoers: they hound them into madness. The Furies are symbols of the power of a guilty conscience. They punished the wicked and guilty without pity, but the good and innocent had little to fear from them. On the contrary, they represented justice and were seen as defenders of moral and legal order. Such a crime was considered so awful that no human method of punishment could be sufficient for it.Īlthough the Furies seemed terrifying and sought vengeance, they were not considered deliberately evil. As these ancient societies developed their own methods of justice, the Furies became associated primarily with punishing those who broke “natural laws”: laws considered to be outside the scope of the normal justice system, such as killing a family member. Before the rise of complex laws and codes, the Furies represented the power needed to maintain order. The need for maintaining order among the public was important in ancient Greece and Rome. In some places, the Furies were linked with the three Graces, goddess sisters who represented beauty, charm, and goodness-qualities quite different from those usually associated with the Furies. The Furies also had shrines dedicated to them in other parts of Greece. Now welcomed in Athens and given a home there, they helped protect the city and its citizens from harm. The goddess Athena (pronounced uh-THEE-nuh), the protector goddess of Athens, cast the deciding ballot.Īthena then calmed the anger of the Furies, who became known afterward as the Eumenides (soothed ones) or Semnai Theai (pronounced SEM-nay THEE-eye honorable goddesses). Finally, the gods persuaded the Furies to allow Orestes to be tried by the Areopagus (pronounced ar-ee-OP-uh-guhs), an ancient court in the city of Athens. In Eumenides, Orestes' act was depicted as just, and the god Apollo (pronounced uh-POL-oh) protected him in his sacred shrine at Delphi (pronounced DEL-fye). This play tells of the Furies' pursuit of Orestes (pronounced aw-RES-teez), who had killed his mother, Clytemnestra (pronounced klye-tem-NES-truh), in revenge for her part in murdering his father, King Agamemnon (pronounced ag-uh-MEM-non) of Mycenae (pronounced mye-SEE-nee). They have a prominent role in Eumenides (pronounced yoo-MEN-uh-deez), a play written by the Greek dramatist Aeschylus (pronounced ES-kuh-luhs).
The Furies appear in many myths and ancient literary works. The Furies could also appear as storm clouds or swarms of insects. They carried torches, whips, and cups of venom with which to torment wrongdoers. Usually imagined as monstrous, foul-smelling hags, the sisters had bats' wings, coal-black skin, and hair entwined with serpents. Most tales mention three Furies: Alecto (pronounced uh-LEK-toh endless), Tisiphone (pronounced ti-SIF-uh-nee punishment), and Megaera (pronounced muh-JEER-uh jealous rage). In either case, their ancient origin set them apart from the other deities or gods in Greek and Roman mythology. In other stories, they were the children of Nyx (pronounced NIKS), goddess of night. When not punishing wrongdoers on earth, they lived in the underworld, or land of the dead, and tortured the damned.Īccording to some stories, the Furies were sisters born from the blood of Uranus (pronounced YOOR-uh-nuhs), the ancient god of the sky, when he was wounded by his son Cronus (pronounced KROH-nuhs). Known especially for pursuing people who had murdered family members, the Furies punished their victims by driving them mad. They were also called the Erinyes (pronounced ee-RIN-ee-eez angry ones). In Greek and Roman mythology, the Furies were female spirits of justice and vengeance. Hesiod's Theogony, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Virgil's Aeneidīorn from the blood of Uranus Character Overview
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