Editing Erinyes (section)

==Description==
The Erinyes live in [[Erebus]] and are more ancient than any of the Olympian deities. Their task is to hear complaints brought by mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, of children to parents, of [[Xenia (Greek)|hosts to guests]], and of householders or city councils to suppliants—and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly. The appearance of the Erinyes differs between sources, though they are frequently described as wearing black.<ref>Aeschylus, ''Libation Beaers'' 1048</ref> In Aesychlus' ''Eumenides,'' the Priestess of Pythian Apollo compares their monstrosity to that of the [[gorgons|gorgon]] and [[harpies]], but adds that they are wingless, with hatred dripping from their eyes.<ref>Aeschylus ''Eumenides'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0005%3Acard%3D34 34-59]</ref> [[Euripides]], on the other hand, gives them wings, as does Virgil.<ref>Euripides ''[Orestes (play)|Orestes]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0115%3Acard%3D316 317]; Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 12. 848</ref> They are often envisaged as having snakes in their hair.<ref>Virgil, ''Georgics'' 4. 471; Propertius, ''Elegies'' 3. 5; Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 4. 451.</ref>

The Erinyes are commonly associated with night and darkness. With varying accounts claiming that they are the daughters of [[Nyx]], the goddess of night, they're also associated with darkness in the works of Aeschylus and Euripides in both their physical appearance and the time of day that they manifest.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Christopoulos|first=Menelaos|title=Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2010|isbn=978-0-7391-3898-4|location=Landham, MD|pages=134}}</ref>

Description of Tisiphone in [[Statius]]' [[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]:

<blockquote>So prayed he, and the cruel goddess turned her grim visage to hearken. By chance she sat beside dismal [[Cocytus]], and had loosed the snakes from her head and suffered them to lap the sulphurous waters. Straightway, faster than fire of [[Jove]] or falling stars she leapt up from the gloomy bank: the crowd of phantoms gives way before her, fearing to meet their queen; then, journeying through the shadows and the fields dark with trooping ghosts, she hastens to the gate of [[Taenarus]], whose threshold none may cross and again return. Day felt her presence, Night interposed her pitchy cloud and startled his shining steeds; far off towering [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] shuddered and shifted the weight of heaven upon his trembling shoulders. Forthwith rising aloft from [[Cape Maleas|Malea]]’s vale she hies her on the well-known way to Thebes: for on no errand is she swifter to go and to return, not kindred Tartarus itself pleases her so well. A hundred horned snakes erect shaded her face, the thronging terror of her awful head; deep within her sunken eyes there glows a light of iron hue, as when [[Atrax (Thessaly)|Atracian]] spells make travailing Phoebe redden through the clouds; suffused with venom, her skin distends and swells with corruption; a fiery vapour issues from her evil mouth, bringing upon mankind thirst unquenchable and sickness and famine and universal death. From her shoulders falls a stark and grisly robe, whose dark fastenings meet upon her breast: Atropos and Proserpine herself fashion her this garb anew. Then both her hands are shaken in wrath, the one gleaming with a funeral torch, the other lashing the air with a live water-snake.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/StatiusThebaidI.php#anchor_Toc337135243|title = Statius (C.45–c.96) - Thebaid: Book I}}</ref>
</blockquote>

[[File:Altemps, sleeping Erinyes 01.JPG|alt=A bust of the head of an Erinyes, asleep and laying on her side. She has human features and normal hair.|thumb|Altemps, sleeping Erinyes]]