1. Homer, Iliad, 9.454, 9.571, 15.204, 19.87 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)
| 9.454. /whom himself he ever cherished, and scorned his wife, my mother. So she besought me by my knees continually, to have dalliance with that other first myself, that the old man might be hateful in her eyes. I hearkened to her and did the deed, but my father was ware thereof forthwith and cursed me mightily, and invoked the dire Erinyes 9.571. /the while she knelt and made the folds of her bosom wet with tears, that they should bring death upon her son; and the Erinys that walketh in darkness heard her from Erebus, even she of the ungentle heart. Now anon was the din of the foemen risen about their gates, and the noise of the battering of walls, and to Meleager the elders 15.204. /Then wind-footed swift Iris answered him:Is it thus in good sooth, O Earth-Enfolder, thou dark-haired god, that I am to bear to Zeus this message, unyielding and harsh, or wilt thou anywise turn thee; for the hearts of the good may be turned? Thou knowest how the Erinyes ever follow to aid the elder-born. 19.87. /Full often have the Achaeans spoken unto me this word, and were ever fain to chide me; howbeit it is not I that am at fault, but Zeus and Fate and Erinys, that walketh in darkness, seeing that in the midst of the place of gathering they cast upon my soul fierce blindness on that day, when of mine own arrogance I took from Achilles his prize. |
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2. Homer, Odyssey, 15.234 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)
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3. Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1433, 1432 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 1432. μὰ τὴν τέλειον τῆς ἐμῆς παιδὸς Δίκην | 1432. By who fulfilled things for my daughter, Justice |
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4. Aeschylus, Eumenides, 107 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 107. χοάς τʼ ἀοίνους, νηφάλια μειλίγματα | |
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5. Euripides, Medea, 1390, 1389 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 1389. The curse of our sons’ avenging spirit and of Justice |
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6. Euripides, Orestes, 38, 321 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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7. Herodotus, Histories, 1.108 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 1.108. But during the first year that Mandane was married to Cambyses, Astyages saw a second vision. He dreamed that a vine grew out of the genitals of this daughter, and that the vine covered the whole of Asia . ,Having seen this vision, and communicated it to the interpreters of dreams, he sent to the Persians for his daughter, who was about to give birth, and when she arrived kept her guarded, meaning to kill whatever child she bore: for the interpreters declared that the meaning of his dream was that his daughter's offspring would rule in his place. ,Anxious to prevent this, Astyages, when Cyrus was born, summoned Harpagus, a man of his household who was his most faithful servant among the Medes and was administrator of all that was his, and he said: ,“Harpagus, whatever business I turn over to you, do not mishandle it, and do not leave me out of account and, giving others preference, trip over your own feet afterwards. Take the child that Mandane bore, and carry him to your house, and kill him; and then bury him however you like.” ,“O King,” Harpagus answered, “never yet have you noticed anything displeasing in your man; and I shall be careful in the future, too, not to err in what concerns you. If it is your will that this be done, then my concern ought to be to attend to it scrupulously.” |
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8. Plato, Cratylus, 398b (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 398b. Hermogenes. Quite likely. Socrates. But the good are the wise, are they not? Hermogenes. Yes, they are the wise. Socrates. This, then, I think, is what he certainly means to say of the spirits: because they were wise and knowing ( δαήμονες ) he called them spirits ( δαίμονες ) and in the old form of our language the two words are the same. Now he and all the other poets are right, who say that when a good man die |
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9. Sophocles, Ajax, 836-844, 835 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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10. Sophocles, Electra, 450-452, 563-572, 84, 894, 449 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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11. Sophocles, Oedipus At Colonus, 254-255, 258-309, 324-464, 466-486, 488-506, 551-628, 631-649, 657-719, 761-799, 818-847, 870, 887-889, 100 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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12. Sophocles, Philoctetes, 1327-1328, 191-200, 1326 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
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13. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 4.712-4.717 (3rd cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
| 4.712. ἡ δʼ εἴσω πελάνους μείλικτρά τε νηφαλίῃσιν 4.713. καῖεν ἐπʼ εὐχωλῇσι παρέστιος, ὄφρα χόλοιο 4.714. σμερδαλέας παύσειεν Ἐρινύας, ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτὸς 4.715. εὐμειδής τε πέλοιτο καὶ ἤπιος ἀμφοτέροισιν 4.716. εἴτʼ οὖν ὀθνείῳ μεμιασμένοι αἵματι χεῖρας 4.717. εἴτε καὶ ἐμφύλῳ προσκηδέες ἀντιόωσιν. | |
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14. Plutarch, On Exilio, 11 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 11. Zeno indeed, when he learned that his only remaining ship had been engulfed with its cargo by the sea, exclaimed: "Well done, Fortune! thus to confine me to a threadbare cloak" and a philosopher's life; while a man not wholly infatuated or mad for the mob would not, I think, on being confined to an island, reproach Fortune, but would commend her for taking away from him all his restlessness and aimless roving, wanderings in foreign lands and perils at sea and tumults in the market place, and giving him a life that was settled, leisurely, undistracted, and truly his own, describing with centre and radius a circle containing the necessities that meet his needs. For what island is there that does not afford a house, a walk, a bath, fish and hares for those who wish to indulge in hunting and sport? And best of all, the quiet for which others thirst, you can repeatedly enjoy. But at home, as men play at draughts and retire from the public eye, informers and busybodies track them down and hunt them out of their suburban estates and parks and bring them back by force to the market place and court; whereas it is not the persons who plague us, who come to beg or borrow money, to entreat us to go surety for them or help in canvassing an election, that sail to an island, it is the best of our connexions and intimates that do so out of friendship and affection, while the rest of life, if one desires leisure and has learned to use it, is left inviolate and sacred. He that calls those persons happy who run about in the world outside and use up most of their lives at inns and ferry-stations is like the man who fancies that the planets enjoy greater felicity than the fixed stars. And yet each planet, revolving in a single sphere, as on an island, preserves its station; for "the Sun will not transgress his bounds," says Heracleitus; "else the Erinyes, ministers of Justice, will find him out. |
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15. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.28.6 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 1.28.6. Hard by is a sanctuary of the goddesses which the Athenians call the August, but Hesiod in the Theogony l. 185. calls them Erinyes (Furies). It was Aeschylus who first represented them with snakes in their hair. But on the images neither of these nor of any of the under-world deities is there anything terrible. There are images of Pluto, Hermes, and Earth, by which sacrifice those who have received an acquittal on the Hill of Ares; sacrifices are also offered on other occasions by both citizens and aliens. |
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16. Orphic Hymns., Argonautica, 570-575, 569
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17. Papyri, Derveni Papyrus, 1
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