The Furies

The Erinyes, the Furies, are the dread avenging goddesses of the underworld — born, in one account, from the blood of the wounded Ouranos. Snake-haired and relentless, they pursue those who shed kindred blood, break sacred oaths, or violate the bonds of family and guest, hounding the guilty to madness and ruin.

Terrible as they are, they are the guardians of a deep moral order, keepers of Justice in its sternest form. When at last appeased — as in the myth of Orestes, reconciled by Athena — they are honoured under a gentler name, the Eumenides, the 'Kindly Ones', and become protective powers of the land. The Orphic hymns address them in both their dreadful and their benign aspect.