Erinyes

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word Erinyes. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word Erinyes, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say Erinyes in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word Erinyes you have here. The definition of the word Erinyes will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofErinyes, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1862)

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἐρῑνύες (Erīnúes, literally “Avengers”).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Erinyes (singular Erinys)

  1. (Greek mythology) The Furies; the goddesses of vengeance against serious moral offence (such as oath-breaking), latterly known as protectors of Athens, of pre-Olympian origin and variously described as having sprung from the spilled blood of Uranus or as daughters of Nyx; identified with the Roman Dirae.
    Synonyms: Eumenides, Furies
    Hyponyms: Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone
    Coordinate term: Dirae
    • 1999, Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, University of California Press, page 252:
      In six of the twelve Homeric passages in which Erinys or the Erinyes are mentioned, the common denominator is a crime or insult that occurs between blood kin: The Erinyes take action when a son steals his father's concubine, a son kills his father and marries his mother, two brothers argue, a son angers his mother, a man kills his mother's brother, or a son chases his mother out of her home.
    • 2018, Stephen Rendall (translator), Jacques Jouanna, Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context, , Princeton University Press, page 393,
      First, he now envisages several Erinyes: then he designates, using a poetic metaphor already employed by Aeschylus in The Libation Bearers,154 that of hunting hounds pursuing game that cannot escape them.
    • 2020, Bridget Martin, Harmful Interaction between the Living and the Dead in Greek Tragedy, Liverpool University Press, page 161:
      Apollo's help and defence of Orestes is taken by the Erinyes as a threat to their own honour and to the perpetuation of their ancient privilege to pursue murderers (169–74).

Translations

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia