Editing Tisiphone

{{Short description|Ancient Greek punisher of murder}}
{{Other uses|Tisiphone (mythology)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
[[File:The Fury Tisiphone at the Palace of Athamas LACMA 65.37.122.jpg|thumb|[[Antonio Tempesta]], ''The Fury Tisiphone at the Palace of [[Athamas]]'']]

'''Tisiphone'''<ref><small>pronounced:</small> {{IPAc-en|t|ɪ|ˈ|s|ɪ|f|ə|n|i}} {{respell|tiss|IF|ə|nee}}</ref> ({{langx|grc|Τισιφόνη|Tisiphónē}}, "Avenger of murder"),<ref name="Britannica">[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tisiphone Tisiphone], Encyclopedia Britannica, Retrieved 4 February 2025; from {{langx|grc|τίσις}} ''tísis'' "payment, punishment" and {{lang|grc|φόνος}} ''phónos'' "murder"</ref> or '''Tilphousia''', was one of the three [[Erinyes]] or Furies in [[Greek mythology]]. Her sisters were [[Alecto]] and [[Megaera]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mythological Index|url=http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/MetindexEFGHI.htm#Erinys|website=The Ovid Collection|publisher=University of Virginia Library}}</ref> They resided in the [[Greek underworld]] and ascended to earth in pursuit of the wicked.<ref name="Britannica"/> She and her sisters punished crimes of murder: [[parricide]], [[fratricide]] and [[homicide]].

==In culture==

===Literature===

* In book I poem 3 of Tibullus's elegies, Tisiphone, unkempt with fierce snakes instead of hair, chases impious souls here and there in [[Tartarus]].<ref>Tibullus, 1.3.69–70.</ref>
* In Book VI of [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', she is described as the guardian of the gates of [[Tartarus]], "clothed in a blood-wet dress".<ref name="poetryintranslation">{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidVI.htm#_Toc2242935 |title=Virgil: ''Aeneid'' VI (A.S.Kline's translation)|publisher=poetryintranslation.com|access-date=2015-10-25}}</ref>
* In Book X of the ''Aeneid'', she is described as "pale" and raging "among the warring thousands" during the battle between [[Mezentius]] and [[Aeneas]]'s men.<ref name="poetryintranslation.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidX.php#anchor_Toc5266113|title=Virgil: ''Aeneid'' X (A.S.Kline's translation)|publisher=poetryintranslation.com|access-date=2018-04-15}}</ref>
* In Book IV of [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', she is described as a denizen of [[Pluto (deity)|Dis]] who wears a dripping red robe and who has a serpent coiled around her waist. At the behest of [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], Tisiphone drives [[Athamas]] and [[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]] mad with the breath of a serpent extracted from her hair and a poison made from froth from the mouth of [[Cerberus]] and [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]]'s venom.<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' Bk IV:464-511.</ref>
* Tisiphone has a prominent role in [[Statius]]' ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'', where she spurs on the war between [[Polynices]] and [[Eteocles]] at the behest of their father, [[Oedipus]]. One of her more gruesome feats in the epic is to drive the hero, [[Tydeus]], to cannibalism. In a bizarrely pastoral scene, Tisiphone first appears in the epic lounging beside the [[Cocytus]] river in the underworld, letting her serpent locks lap at the sulfuric waters.<ref>Statius, ''Thebaid'' Bk I:88-91.</ref>
* According to one myth, she fell in love with a mortal, Cithaeron, but was spurned; in her anger she formed a poisonous snake from her hair, which bit and killed him.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pseudo-Plutarch|author-link=Pseudo-Plutarch|title=De fluviis|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0400%3Achapter%3D2}}</ref>
* In Book I of [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'', the narrator calls upon her to help him to write the tragedy properly.<ref>Geoffrey Chaucer, "Troilus and Criseyde", Book I:5, in ''The Riverside Chaucer'', 3rd Edition, ed. Larry D. Benson, Oxford University Press, 1988, p.473</ref>
* In Canto IX of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', she appears with her sisters before the gates of [[Dis (Divine Comedy)|Dis]], threatening to unveil the [[Medusa]].
* In Henry Fielding’s ''Tom Jones'' (Book I, ch. VIII), Bridget smiles “one of those smiles which might be supposed to have come from the dimpled cheeks of the august Tisiphone.”
* In the David Weber space opera ''[[In Fury Born]]'', Tisiphone appears as an ancient Greek spirit who is mind-melded with a super-soldier Alicia Devries, and they (along with a starship AI named [[Megaera]]) save the universe from evil pirates.
* In Evie Shockley's poetry collection ''Suddenly We'', the final stanza of the poem "breonna taylor's final rest (or, the furies are still activists)" invokes Tisiphone in her role as avenger of murder victims.
* In Warhammer 40k, at the beginning of the 31st millennium the first official execution of a traitor in the Imperium is accomplished with a Power Sword named Tisiphone, made for former Luna Wolves Legionary Iacton Qruze and lent to Primarch Rogal Dorn for that purpose.

===Ships===

* {{HMS|Tisiphone|1781|6}} was a [[fire ship]] of the [[Royal Navy]] launched in 1781 and sold for [[Ship breaking|breaking up]] in 1816.<ref>{{cite book |first=Rif|last=Winfield|title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714&ndash;1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates|publisher=Seaforth|year=2007|page=378|isbn=978-1844157006}}</ref>

===Astronomy===

* Minor planet [[466 Tisiphone]] is named after her.<ref>{{cite book|title=(466) Tisiphone In: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |pages = 52|publisher=Springer |date=2003 |isbn=978-3-540-29925-7 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_467|chapter = (466) Tisiphone}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Family tree of the Greek gods]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline|Tisiphone (mythology)}}

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}

[[Category:Erinyes]]
[[Category:Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid]]