The mythology of Greece and Rome, with special reference to its use in art

by Otto Seemann

18. The Erinyes (Furiæ).—The Erinyes, or Furies, were denizens of the lower world, who executed the commands of Hades and Persephone. They were ultimately three in number, and their names were Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megæra; and this number, like that of the Graces, the Fates, and others, is due to the fact that the Greeks expressed any undefined number by the sacred numeral three. In their original signification they appear as the avengers of every violation, either on the part of gods or men, of the moral laws of the universe. When, at a later period, the idea of an avenging Nemesis had become more and more developed, the significance of the Erinyes diminished, and their avenging duties were confined to the family.

As the inexorable pursuers of every injury done to the sacred ties of blood—especially the murder of kindred—they received a much greater degree of attention at the hands of the Greek tragic poets, by whom they were frequently brought on the stage. The pictures thus drawn of the relentless activity of the Erinyes are both powerful and striking. Nothing can equal the keen scent with which they trace the crime, or the untiring speed with which they pursue the criminal. As a symbol of this latter quality, the poets have endowed them with brazen feet. Their appearance is wan and Gorgon-like; wild lust for blood is written in their features, and the serpents which twine round their heads in the place of hair deal out destruction and death on their unhappy victims. Flight avails them nought, for there is no region whither the avenging Furies cannot follow, no distance that they cannot compass. With torch swung on high they dog the steps of the unhappy wretch, like swift huntresses following in the track of their hard-pressed game, and never rest until they have driven him to madness and death.

What, then, was the origin of the belief in these dreadful beings? Two explanations have been given, and in each case we shall see in them the powers of nature. Whether we are to look upon them as the storm-clouds darting lightnings upon the criminal, or as the bright dawn rising over the earth and pointing out his hiding-place, we must recognise the idea of the punishment of sin, inflicted by the powers of heaven. If, as seems most probable (cf. the genealogy given them by Æschylus and Sophocles), we are to take the latter explanation, we shall have some reason for the names of “kindly” and “venerable,” applied to them by the Greeks, partly, no doubt, owing to the ancient custom of avoiding words of ill-omen. Yet poetical mythology treated this as a transformation of their nature, and associated it with a special event, namely, the institution of the Areopagus at Athens, and the purification of the matricide Orestes effected by this venerable court. The story relates that Orestes, after having slain his mother Clytæmnestra and her infamous paramour Ægisthus, in revenge for the murder of his father Agamemnon, wandered for a long time about the earth in a state bordering on madness, owing to the persecution of the Erinyes. At length, however, he was befriended by Apollo and Athene, the kindly deities of the luminous Æther. Apollo first purified him before his own altar at Delphi, and then defended him before the court of the Areopagus, which had been founded by Athene. Orestes was here acquitted, for Athene, when the votes for and against him were equal, declared that then and in all future time the criminal should have the benefit of the doubt. The Furies, indeed, were at first very wroth, and threatened the land with barrenness both of women and soil; but Athene succeeded in pacifying them, by promising that a shrine should be erected to them on the hill of the Areopagus. After they had taken possession of this sanctuary, they were thenceforth venerated by the Athenians, under the names of Semnæ (venerable), or Eumenides (benevolent), as propitious deities who, though they still continued to punish crimes, were ever ready to grant mercy to the repentant sinner, and to give succour to all good men.

There were different traditions concerning the origin of the Erinyes. According to Hesiod, they owed their existence to the first execrable crime committed since the beginning of the world, for they were the daughters of Earth, and sprang from the drops of blood that fell from the mangled body of Uranus. They here appear, therefore, as an embodiment of the curses which the angry father invoked on the head of his unnatural son. Sophocles, on the other hand, calls them the daughters of Gæa and Scotos (darkness of night). Æschylus simply terms them the daughters of the Night. Besides the shrine in Athens already mentioned, they had another near the city, a sacred grove in Colonus, which was celebrated as the last refuge of the unfortunate Œdipus. In Athens they had an annual festival, at which libations of milk and honey were made to them.

In art the Erinyes are represented as swift huntresses, armed with spear, bow, and quiver. Torches, scourges, or snakes were also put in their hands. They were, moreover, provided with wings on their shoulders or head as a token of their swiftness.

19. Hecate.—Among the mystic deities of the lower world we must not omit to mention Hecate. By the Romans, indeed, she was never publicly venerated, though she was not exactly unknown to them. Common tradition made her a daughter of the Titan Perseus and Asteria. She ruled principally over the secret forces of Nature, which perhaps explains the spectral and awe-inspiring form which this goddess assumed. She was supposed to preside over all nocturnal horrors, and not only to haunt the tombs and cross-roads herself in company with the spirits of the dead, but also to send nightly phantoms from the lower world, such as the man-eating spectre Empusa, and other fabulous goblins.

As her name seems to signify, Hecate (far-striking) was originally a moon-goddess, not like either Artemis or Selene, but representing the new moon in its invisible phase. The ancients not being able to account for the different phases of the moon, naturally came to the conclusion that, when invisible, it was tarrying in the lower world. The public worship of the goddess was not very extensive, but her importance in connection with the mysteries was all the greater. Men were wont to affix small pictures of her to houses and city gates, which were supposed to prevent any bad spells from affecting the town or house. On the last day of every month her image on the house doors was crowned with garlands, and viands were set before it in her honour, which were afterwards eaten by the poor, and termed the meals of Hecate. Wooden images of the goddess with three faces were generally set up where three roads met, and here dogs were sacrificed to her as sin-offerings for the dead. This usually took place on the thirtieth day after death. As in the case of other infernal deities, black lambs were sacrificed to her, besides libations of milk and honey.

Fig. 47.—Three-formed Hecate. Capitoline Museum.

Hecate was generally represented as three-formed (triformis), which probably has some connection with the appearance of the full, half, and new moon. In order to explain more clearly the nature of such a representation, we give an engraving (Fig. 47) after a bronze statuette in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. The figure facing us holds in her hands a key and a rope, which point her out as the portress of the lower world; over her brow is a disc, representing, probably, the dark surface of the new moon. The figure on the right holds in either hand a torch, in virtue of her character as a mystic goddess, whilst on her brow is a half-moon and a lotus-flower. Lastly, the third figure bears, as a symbol of the full moon, a Phrygian cap with a radiant diadem fastened on it, which gives forth seven rays; in her right hand is a knife, in her left the tail of a serpent, of which no satisfactory interpretation has hitherto been discovered.