a name given to the Furies by the ancients. They sprang from the blood of the wound which Coelus received from his son Saturn. According to others, they were daughters of Earth, and conceived from the blood of Saturn. Some make them daughters of Acheron and Night, or Pluto and Proserpine. According to the more received opinions, they were three in number, Tisiphone, Megara, and Alecto, to which some add Nemesis. Plutarch mentions only one called Adrasta, daughter of Jupiter and Necessity. They were supposed to be the ministers of the vengeance of the gods. They were stern and inexorable; and were always employed in punishing the guilty upon earth, as well as in the infernal regions. They inflicted their vengeance upon earth by wars, pestilence, and diffusions, and by the secret flings of conscience; and in hell they punished the guilty by continual flagellation and torments. They were also called Furiae and Erinnyes. Their worship was almost universal; and people dared not to mention their names or fix their eyes upon their temples. They were honoured with sacrifices and libations; and in Achaia they had a temple, which when entered by any one guilty of a crime, suddenly rendered him furious and deprived him of the use of his reason. In the sacrifices the votaries used branches of cedar and of alder, hawthorn, saffron, and juniper; and the victims were generally turtle doves and sheep, with libations of wine and honey. They were usually represented with a grim and frightful aspect, with a black and bloody garment, and with serpents writhing round their heads instead of hair. They held a burning torch in one hand, and a whip of scorpions in the other; and were always attended by Terror, Rage, Paleness, and Death. In hell they were seated around Pluto's throne, as the ministers of his vengeance.