Not exactly on the Aventine, but on the other side of the Tiber, lies a sacred grove. Inmidst of dense foliage that, along with the songs of birds, muffles the bustling sounds of Rome, an altar is erected. It is dedicated to the three daughters of Nox, the Night: Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto - the Furiae, also called Dirae.

Before you enter, though, pause to think, citizen! Madness awaits those who enter with a curse already upon them. Should you wish to ask for mercy and seek to be purified, know that black lambs and doves will please the Furies, as do honey, wine and the branches of cedar, alder, saffron, juniper and hawthorn. As Virgil wrote: "Aeneas sacrificed a black-fleeced lamb to Nox, the mother of the Furiae."

As it is with the divine, there are countless stories about how the Furies came to be. Some say, they are children of Dis and Proserpina, others tell us Acheron sired them with Nox or that they are the offspring of Chaos and Gaia, or of Cronos and Euonyme. Seneca calls them 'handmaidens of Dis', and Tisiphone is known to have guarded the Entrance to Hades with her outstretched arm, holding a blazing torch while Cerberus was away, taken by heroic Hercules as one of his tasks.

The Furiae have made their way to Rome from Greece, where the Sorores Genitae Nocte (nocturnal-born sisters) are known as the Erinnyes, Eumenides or Semnai. Here in Rome, they are still called by their Greek names, Tisiphone/Tisiphonê (murder retribution - tisis, phonos), Megaera/Megaira (grudge - megairô) and Alecto/Alêktô (unrelenting - alêktos).

The Erinnyes are supposed to dwell in the spheres of Erebos until a curse cast against a criminal calls them back to life. The crimes they avenge are, according to Homer, disobedience towards parents, violation of the respect due to old age, perjury, murder, violation of the law of hospitality, and improper conduct towards suppliants, the most powerful curse being that of a parent cast upon a child. In fact, such a curse is so grave that it cannot be averted. Aeschylos says the Erinnyes cannot be moved by prayer, sacrifice, nor tears, nothing can protect the object of their persecution. The Furies are impartial, the maintenance of strict justice is their only object.

The original number and the names of the Furies are not known, neither Hesiod nor Homer provide any information. Hesiod, however, calls the Erinnyes the daughters of Gaia, who conceived them via the drops of blood that fell upon her from the emasculated body of Uranus as the result of the first crime of a child against a parent.

The Furies appear in two manifestations - as crones, clad in tattered, gore-splattered black robes, or as youthful, winged maidens dressed as huntresses. In both manifestations, though, their heads resemble Medusa: Their hairs are writhing with black serpents whose poison is constantly dripping down. Serpents are also wound around their arms and waists, ready to bring madness to the Furies' targets. The sisters carry flaming pine torches, at least one of them also brandishes a whip made of scorpions. Ovid left us a particularly colourful description:

"The Night-Born Sisters, divinities implacable, doom-laden ... sat, guarding the dungeon’s adamantine doors, and combed the black snakes hanging in their hair ... Tisiphone, dishevelled as she was, shook her white hair and tossed aside the snakes that masked her face ... malign Tisiphone seized a torch steeped in blood, put on a robe all red with dripping gore and wound a snake about her waist ... The baleful ... [Fury] stood ... stretching her arms entwined with tangled snakes, and shaking out her hair. The snakes, dislodged, gave hissing sounds; some crawled upon her shoulders; some, gliding round her bosom, vomited a slime of venom, flickering their tongues and hissing horribly. Then from her hair she tore out two with a doom-charged aim darted them. Down the breasts of Athamas and Ino, winding, twisting, they exhaled their noisome breath; yet never any wound to see, the fateful fangs affect their minds. Tisiphone brought with her poisons too of magic power: lip-froth of Cerberus, the Echidna’s venom, wild deliriums, blindnesses of the brain, and crime and tears, and maddened lust for murder; all ground up, mixed with fresh blood, boiled in a pan of bronze, and stirred with a green hemlock stick. And while they shuddered there, she poured the poisoned brew, that broth of madness, over both their breasts right down into their hearts. Then round and round she waved her torch, fire following brandished fire ... She went, and loosened the snake she’d fastened round her waist."

Credits and sources not stated in the text:
• "A Classical Dictionary" by J. Lempriere • theoi.com • M. Fabius Furius • Arminius Terentius • Silvia Hartmann (pine tree background) • Inspiration Gallery (marble pattern for altar) • theoi.com/Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples (fresco for altar) • "Evening in the Forest" by reinsamba, used under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License, wav converted to mp3 • Spurius Furius (table, altar) •