FURIES, in Pagan antiquity, certain goddesses whose office it was to punish the guilty after death. They were three in number: Alesto, Megæra, and Tisiphone; who were described with snakes instead of hair, and eyes like lightning, carrying iron chains and whips in one hand, and in the other flaming torches; the latter to discover, and the former to punish, the guilty: and they were supposed to be constantly hovering over such persons as had been guilty of any enormous crime.
Mythologists suppose, that Tisiphone punished the crimes which sprang from hatred or anger; Megæra, those
Furies those from envy; and Alecko, those from an insatiable
II Furnace. pursuit after riches and pleasure. They were worshipped
at Casina in Arcadia, and at Carmia in Peloponnesus.
They had a temple at Athens near the Acropolis, and
their priests were chosen from amongst the judges of
that court. At Telphusia, a city in Arcadia, a black
ewe was sacrificed to them.