ERINYES (FURIES) Origin: Greek and Roman mythology. Literally means “avengers”,
ERINYES (FURIES) Origin: Greek and Roman mythology. Literally means “avengers”, sometimes referred to as “infernal goddesses”. Description: Female chthonic deities of vengeance. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as “those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath. They correspond to the Furies or Dirae in Roman mythology. The waists of the Erinyes were entwined with serpents and their eyes dripped with blood, rendering them rather horrific. Other depictions show them with the wings of a bat or bird and the body of a dog. Myths: When the titan, Cronus, castrated his father Uranus and threw his genitalia into the sea, the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood, 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”. Their number is usually left indeterminate. Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recorgnized three: Alecto (“unnameable”), Megaera (“grudging”), and Tisiphone (“vengeful destruction”). -- source link
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