Erinyes+(Furies)

Respect

by Briana

Don’t disrespect your parents: it could earn you a slow and painful death. The Erinyes were vengeful goddesses feared by gods and mortals alike. From their bloody beginnings, they were the guardians of atonement, changing the course of mythology and influencing day to day life with their endless war against injustice.

Among Greek writings, there is much disagreement about who the parents of the most fearsome creatures in Greek mythology are. Some say Hades and Persephone are the parents, while others point to Poine or Nyx, but the most common myth is that Tisiphone’s, Megaira’s and Alekto’s gory history was bloody even before they were born. In the most famous rendition of their conception Kronos, the Titan of time, faces Uranus, who happened to be his father as well as the Sky (yes, the whole sky) and castrates him using a sickle with jagged teeth. Uranus’s blood soaks mother Earth—Gaea—who then gives birth to the Avenger, the Grudge and the Unceasing (Tisiphone, Megaira and Alekto) ([|Astma 2008]1 & Hesiod). Any way you look at it, the Erinyes were born into the most dysfunctional family in history; it is no wonder they are so terrifying in appearance according to Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

//"The [Erinyes] divinities implacable, doom-laden . . . sat, guarding the dungeon’s adamantine doors, and combed the black snakes hanging in their hair . . . Tisiphone, disheveled as she was, shook her white hair and tossed aside the snakes that masked her face . . . malign Tisiphone seized a torch steeped in blood, put on a robe all red with dripping gore and wound a snake about her waist . . . The baleful Erinys stood . . . stretching her arms entwined with tangled snakes...The snakes, dislodged, gave hissing sounds; some crawled upon her shoulders; some, gliding round her bosom, vomited a slime of venom, flickering their tongues and hissing…”// (4. 451) The fruits of bitter blood and pain are not pretty.

Originally, the Erinyes were the curses pronounced upon criminals personified, but by the classical period, these personifications, whose very name means “I am angry,” had become gruesome avengers of crime. Greeks feared them so much they refused to call them by their real name; rather they were called Eumenides, a euphemism adopted to portray the Goddesses as “well meaning” or “soothed goddesses”, which they were anything but: they were more implacable and heartless than soothed or well meaning. As time passed, the immortal Erinyes grew wings and images of them in their home, Tartarus, are reminiscent of she-demons today. Their appearance might have evolved with time—on stage, in later years, they were portrayed as solemn maidens dressed in the garments of expert and deadly huntresses—but, they were consistently vengeful. The crimes they punished, and how they punished them endured through the ages. Also, by the time of Homer, the Erinyes had become the three distinct beings recognized today: Tisiphone, Megaira and Alekto. The Erinyes might not have been pretty, but the fact that they were not even called by their name shows what an impact they had on day-to-day existence ([|Astma 2008]1and 2).

Tisiphone, Megaira and Alekto had two main roles in Greek religion. The first of these was as “purifiers of the dead” and “jailors of the dungeons of the damned”. After shades of the dead passed through the Judges of the Dead, they were handed over to the Erinyes who either purified the dead of their sins or sent them to the underworld dungeon, Tartarus, which is very similar to Christian-Judeo Hell. Their other role in mythology was the avengers of injustice. In Greece, there was only one punishment for crimes like homicide, disrespecting parents and elders, improper treatment of servants, filial betrayal, matricide, filicide, patricide, fratricide, sororicide, and oath or covenant breaking: the wrath of the Erinyes. They punished a wide range of crimes, but it was these atrocities that especially concerned the Erinyes. The Erinyes were the avengers of all these crimes and more, and the people of Greece feared them because they do not take bribes: no amount of groveling, prayer, sacrifice, tears, or fear can protect one they intend to persecute. Their only goal was retribution and strict justice. Justice for the Erinyes equates to anything from tormenting madness to illness or disease, or starvation and severe famine of the nation which the criminal takes refuge. No being, mortal or divine, was powerful enough to defend themselves or evade them: not even Poseidon, god of the sea. In the Iliad, he supposedly challenges Zeus’s choices as king of the gods to support the Spartans instead of the Trojans, who Poseidon supported. The Erinyes warn him not to try it: they will punish such a betrayal ([|Astma 2008]1 and 2).

King Oedipus was ruling in Thebes when the famine hit: the Erinyes were punishing all of Thebes for the crimes one man, doomed from before birth, had unwittingly committed. The Oracle of Delphi had predicted that Oedipus was going to murder his father and marry his mother the Queen, before she knew she was pregnant. After she had the baby, Oedipus, she and her husband, the king, sent him away, in the hopes he would never fulfill his terrible destiny: but that never works. Oedipus unwittingly kills his father, and is elected the new king of Thebes after ridding the people of the Sphinx. Effectively, the prophesy is fulfilled: Oedipus has killed his long lost father and married the mother he never knew and has kids with her. Thebes is harboring a criminal guilty of disgusting crimes against the gods, and the Erinyes are merciless: they do not ever forgive, whether the crimes were committed knowingly or not. So they strike Thebes with a famine of epic proportions, and the king decides to find out what the Erinyes are so angry about. All the clues do not add up in Oedipus’s mind until his mother and wife hangs herself in grief; she discovered that the prophesy was fulfilled. Retribution: the Erinyes claim the life of the first sinner. Poor Oedipus, who never had a mother until he married her, gouges out his eyes in despair; who would not? His children find out about the scandal and persecute him, mocking him for his suffering and seize his throne and exile him. Furious, Oedipus, a man cursed by the Erinyes, calls them up from Tartarus to curse his cruel sons. Then all Hades breaks lose, a war called the battle of the Seven Against Thebes. During the blood bath, Zeus calls on the Erinyes because he is so disgusted by the family’s conflict. Death soaked Thebes, which was covered in blood that day; even Tisiphone was satisfied. ([|Astma 2008] 3 and Statius)

Oedipous’s tragic tale is not the only myth that the Erinyes played a major role in; there are a plethora of famous Greek myths in which the Erinyes play small parts in, or act as the catalyst for. For instance, the Erinyes are why Telomokhos from the Odyssey did not force his mother to marry one of the suitors that plagued her household: he was afraid his mother would call down her Erinyes from heaven to smite him or curse him with a long a painful death or madness for disrespecting her so (Homer). Another famous story which the Erinyes played a role in was the myth of Myrrha, from the Metamorphoses.

//"Cupidus [Eros] himself denies his arrows hurt Myrrha [and made her fall in love with her own father Kinyras] and clears his torch of that offence. One of the three dread Sorores (Sisters) [the Erinyes] blasted her with viper’s venom and firebrands of Stygia (Hell). To hate one’s father is a crime; this love [sexual desire] a greater crime than hate." //

Myrrha fell in love with her own father, and slept with him without him knowing it. When he found out, he called down the Erinyes to avenge him and Kinyras chased her with an ax. She sent up a desperate prayer, and became a tree. Her story does not end there: she became pregnant from one of the three nights she spent with her father, and a child was born from her trunk. The punishments for betrayal and murder riddle Greek mythology: from the story of Oidipous and his sons, to Myrrha and her father, and Telemachus from the Odyssey ([|Astma 2008]2).

 Most societies have their little quarks and superstitions, things like the fear of walking under ladders or black cats. Greek mythology is riddled with them, and the Erinyes are at the center of superstition. The Erinyes were messengers of ill omen, and anything related to them was considered to be ill-omened. For instance, the fifth day of the month was considered the most unlucky day of the month, and that, consequently, happens to be the day that the Erinyes were born and helped deliver Horkos (Oath). Solar eclipses were ill-omened, because it was said that the Erinyes were stopping Helios in the sky bringing a cloud of warning over the earth. The Erinyes eclipsed the sun because the conflict of Seven against Thebes. When is the last time you had a screech owl or poisonous serpent called sacred, or regarded a flaming yew branch as holy? Coincidentally, all these things were considered holy to the Erinyes. If a screech owl was present during a wedding, it was considered doomed ([|Astma 2008]6). Consider the use of these omens in the story of Tereus and Prokne from the Metamorphoses:

//"When they [the Tereus and Prokne] were married [a couple doomed to destroy their family with slaughter] ... The Eumenides [Erinyes] held the [wedding] torches, torches seized from mourners’ hands; the Eumenides made their bed. An unclean screech-owl like a nightmare sat above their chamber one the palace roof. That bird [or omen] haunted the couple’s union, that bird [or omen] haunted their parenthood." (6.428) //

Many similar passages appear throughout mythological tombs, like the marriages of Hypsipyle, Phyllis, Dido and Kanake, all of whom suffered dearly at the hands of the Erinyes ([|Astma 2008]6).

<span style="background: white; color: #4e0d08; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Erinyes were a force to be reckoned with, so feared that few dared speak their very name. Gore stains their lives, which began with bloodshed and resulted in much more. People respected and feared these goddesses, and seriously considered the price for their crimes before committing them. Authority today is not respected like it was in Classical Greece; people back then knew that they would have to face the consequences for their crimes. Modern people do not maintain this respect of authority; they boldly sin without fear of consequence. The Erinyes might have had a gruesome reputation, but they maintained order and the balance between transgression and consequence that we have lost today.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Works Cited

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma, Aaron J. "Erinyes : Greek Goddesses of Retribution, the Furies ; Mythology ; Pictures : ERINNYES." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. . Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma, Aaron J. "Erinyes2 : Greek Mythology." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes2.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma, Aaron J. "Erinyes 3 : Greek Mythology." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes3.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma, Aaron J. "Erinyes 4 : ATREIDES." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. . Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes4.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma, Aaron J. "Erinyes 5 : Divine Wrath." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes5.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma, Aaron J. "Erinyes 6 : Omens." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes6.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Hesiod, and Hugh G. Evelyn-White. The Homeric Hymns ; and Homerica. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1982. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Homer, and Richmond Alexander Lattimore. Odyssey. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1961. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Statius, P. Papinius, and Bailey D. R. Shackleton. Thebaid, Books I-VII. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2003. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Astma,

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