Classical Wisdom Litterae - January 2021

If you think the Sirens are the onl y my thologi cal beings capab l e of mak i ng mus i c deadly, think again. Mythology gives us another, much older trio of ladies whose song was meant to torture and kill their victims. They go by many names, but at l e a s t o n e i s e m i n e n t l y recognizable: they are often called the Furies. According to most mythological accounts, the three Furies— named Alecto (the unceasing), Megaera (the jealous) , and Tisiphone (the avenger)—were literally born of blood. They sprang into being after the Titan, Kronos, castrated his father, Uranus. The blood from Uranus’ wound fell to the earth (Gaia) and produced the Giants, the Furies (or Erinyes), and the Meliae (a kind of nymph). Thi s bl oody backs tor y i s par t i cul ar l y important to the Furies for two reasons. First, it establishes their age and lineage— they are older even than the Olympians, and are the direct result of a co-mingling of two primeval forces (Uranus, the heavens, and Gaia, the earth). Second, they are also the result of a crime committed by a son against his father. Fittingly, then, for many years the Furies were considered avengers of violations to the natural order—if a man killed his parents, for example, he could expect to answer to the Furies. By all accounts, the Furies were visually terrifying. They had the bodies and faces of twisted old women, with writhing snakes for hair, runny eyes, and tattered black clothing. They punished their victims with a wild paralytic song that aroused intense feelings of guilt and remorse—essentially, the Furies d r o v e c r i m i n a l s ma d b y exposing them to their own guilt and fear. The Furies were, for all intents and purposes, monsters. They may have been mons te r s seeking justice, but they were terrifying monsters nonetheless. And yet, believe it or not, they were worshipped in Athens. They had their own sanctuary and sacred grotto, and were c a l l e d t h e “ E ume n i d e s , ” meaning “the kindly ones.” Okay—what gives? One of the best sources to look to when trying to understand Athens’ worship of the Eumenides is actually a trilogy of plays called The Oresteia , by an Ancient Greek tragedian named Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BCE). In these plays, he not only tells the tragic story of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes, but also essentially gives us an origin story for Athens’ famous trial-by-jury system of justice. It’s in the last play of this trilogy, called The Eumenides , that we can see a distinct shift in the function and identity of the Furies. But before we can understand how they went BY N I C O L E S A L DA R R I AG A “ The Furies were, for all intents and purposes, mon st e rs . Theymay have been mon st e rs seeking ju st ice, but they were terrifying mon st e rs nonetheless. ” XLIV