2. The Furies (Erinyes or Eumenides), Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra, born of the blood of the wounded Uranus. They were attendants of Proserpina. They punished with the frenzies of remorse the crimes of those who had escaped from or defied public justice. The heads of the Furies were wreathed with serpents.
3. Hecate, a mysterious divinity sometimes identified with Diana and sometimes with Proserpina. As Diana represents the moonlight splendor of night, so Hecate represents its darkness and terrors. She haunted crossroads and graveyards, was the goddess of sorcery and witchcraft, and wandered by night, seen only by the dogs whose barking told of her approach.
Fig. 39. Death, Sleep, and Hermes laying a Body in the Tomb
4. Sleep, or Somnus (Hypnos), and Death (Thanatos), sons of Night.[54] They dwell in subterranean darkness. The former brings to mortals solace and fair dreams, and can lull the shining eyes of Jove himself; the latter closes forever the eyes of men. Dreams, too, are sons of Night.[55] They dwell beside their brother Death, along the Western Sea. Their abode has two gates,—one of ivory, whence issue false and flattering visions; the other of horn, through which true dreams and noble pass to men.[56]
FOOTNOTES:
[44] For interpretation and illustration, see corresponding sections of Commentary.
[45] Iliad, 22, 482; 9, 568; 20, 61.
[46] Odyssey, 10, 508; 11, 20; 24, 1.