In Greek mythology, the Furies were female spirits of vengeance. They pursued and punished a person who had harmed or killed a member of his or her own family. They might also carry out a parent’s curse against his or her children. Alcmaeon and Orestes, for example, are two men in Greek legend and literature who murdered their mothers. The Furies drove them both insane.
The Furies were linked to very ancient beliefs in supernatural forces. The earliest references to them suggest that they were thought of as earth spirits connected with the dead. The Furies had various powers and responsibilities, including protecting beggars. They also served as guardians of universal order. In Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, the goddess Hera gives a horse the power to talk, but the Furies restore the horse to its more appropriate and natural voiceless state.
The Greeks referred to the Furies in two ways—as the Erinyes or as the Eumenides. The Erinyes signified them as dark, fearful spirits of punishment. The name Eumenides, meaning “the kindly, or harmless ones,” was sometimes used in an attempt to appease them.
In the popular imagination, the appearance of the Furies was frightening. The playwright Aeschylus dressed actors portraying the Furies in black and made it seem as if they had snakes for hair. This grim image was echoed by other playwrights and artists in Greece and Rome. Later writers identified three Furies with the names Tisiphone, Allecto, and Megaera. (See also Divinities; Myths, Greek.)