The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

own hair, and a ratty Fu Manchu moustache”
(Kim Newman, Bad Dreams, 1990).
Furies Avenging spirits. <strong>The</strong> Furies, also known
as the Erinyes, were depicted in Greek mythology
as three winged, snake- haired goddesses
named Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera, who were
merciless in their pursuit of unpunished criminals,
especially those who had committed offenses
against their own kin, blasphemed against the
gods, or betrayed a guest or host. <strong>The</strong>y were variously
said to be the daughters of Gaea or to have
sprung up from the blood of Uranus. Because it
was thought unlucky to allude to the Furies by
name, they were sometimes referred to euphemistically
as the Eumenides, meaning “Kindly
Ones.” <strong>The</strong> story of how they pursued Orestes for
having killed his mother Clytemnestra is related
in the play Eumenides by Aeschylus (525–456 b.c.).
“<strong>The</strong> Vengeance, uttering terrifi c shrieks, and
fl inging her arms about her head like the forty
Furies at once, was tearing from house to house,
rousing the women” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of
Two Cities, 1859).
Furies
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