The Furia are infamous among the Greek and Roman mythologies as fearsome women who avenged crimes against the natural order. They were particularly concerned with homicide, violence, and traitorous acts against the gods. Upon capturing a criminal worthy of drawing their attention, the furia were known to inflict insanity upon them or to serve in the underworld as their torturers. They are also known as the Furies, Erinyes, or Dirae–names which invoked dread into the hearts of mortals.
They were depicted as ugly, winged women with hair, arms and waists entwined with poisonous serpents. These jailors of the dungeons of the damned wielded whips and were clothed either in the long black robes of mourners, or the short-length skirts and belted-boots of huntress- maidens. As such they were also known as the ‘Daughters of Night’, indeed, the Furia are female-only.
Legend says the furia were born of great goddess Gaia, the Mother of All, following the mutilation of Ouranos, her consort, by the titanous god Kronos, who later fathered Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Hera.
Homer described the presence of many furia, however only the names of three have survived the passage of time: Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera. Indeed, in Ages past, the furia were numerous, women born with the ability to sense the deepest imprints of human emotion on the physical world. Acts of violence and likewise those of joy pierce the mass of the ethos with a sort of scent which a furia may track to its source. Such a gift contributed to their reknown abilities, and while they are less numerous than ever before, the furia remain, reborn in infant girls from time to time with predilections for profound awareness.
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