Classical Avengers Classical Avengers
The Erinyes could be considered to be the original
Avengers
(more stylish than but as purposeful as Terminators). In
pre-Hellenic and pre-Olympian
times the angry soul of a murdered man
(Greene)
,
the Erinyes become the avenging agents for murders or other
offenses against kinfolk (particularly if these involved the parents or first-born).
They know no pity, nor any excuse or justification for the crime; they are interested only in the deed, and avenge especially the sins for which primitive human law provides no redress.The methodological difference between them and the Avengers is that they are not directly violent, but instead make life unbearable for the perpetrator (usually by producing madness). Those pursued by the Erinyes included Meleager, Oedipus, Theseus and Orestes (BellWm. C. Greene, Moira. Fate, Good, and Evil in Greek Thought.
calls the last their ``most challenging
assignment''). Their name was later changed to Eumenides, the euphemism apparently
intended to avert the bad press of the old name. They were female (but apparently
infertile), and eventually became the
Furies of Roman mythology.
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