Group of Greco-Roman goddesses of vengeance.
The Furies lived in the underworld and ascended to earth to pursue the wicked. They were known to the Greeks as the Erinyes, but those who feared to speak their name often called them by euphemisms such as Eumenides ("Kind Ones"). According to Hesiod , they were daughters of Gaea , the earth goddess. Aeschylus made them the terrifying chorus of his tragedy Eumenides , and Euripides was the first to speak of them as three in number.