Erinyes (Furies)

The Erinyes (or the Furies, or sometimes the Eumenides, the 'kindly or gracious ones') were female, chthonic deities of vengeance or supernatural personifications of the anger of the dead. Although their number is indeterminate, three are usually recognized: Alecto ('unceasing'), Megaera ('grudging') and Tisiphone ('avenging murder'). They were born when the Titan Cronus castrated his father Uranus and threw his genitals into the sea, the Erinyes emerging from the drops of blood, while Aphrodite was born from the seafoam. They were understood as the persecutors of mortal men and women who broke natural laws, particularly those who broke ties of kinship by murder of family members. When not stalking victims on the Earth, the Furies were thought to dwell in Tartarus where they applied their tortures to the souls of the damned.