Tisiphone
One of the three Erinyes who avenges murder by driving perpetrators to madness
The Myth of Tisiphone
Tisiphone, whose name means "Avenger of Murder," was one of the three dreaded Erinyes (Furies), born from the blood of Ouranos when Kronos castrated him with an adamantine sickle. She and her sisters Alecto and Megaera dwelt in the deepest reaches of Erebus, emerging to pursue mortals who had committed the most heinous crimes — particularly the murder of kin. Tisiphone was specifically charged with punishing homicide. She appeared as a terrifying figure draped in a blood-soaked robe, with serpents writhing in her hair and a whip or torch in her hand. In Virgil's Aeneid, she stands guard at the gates of Tartarus, lashing the condemned as they enter. In the myth of the Theban cycle, Tisiphone drove the daughters of Proetus to madness as punishment for their impiety. The Erinyes could not be appeased by prayer or sacrifice — only by the proper purification of the killer and the satisfaction of the victim's blood-debt. Their relentless pursuit embodied the Greek conviction that murder polluted not only the killer but the entire community until justice was served.
Parents
Ouranos and Gaia (born from Ouranos's blood)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Greeks often called the Erinyes "the Eumenides" (Kindly Ones) as a euphemism, fearing that speaking their true name would summon them
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Megaera
⚡ godUnderworld
One of the three Erinyes who punishes oath-breakers, the jealous, and those guilty of marital infidelity
Alecto
⚡ godUnderworld
One of the three Erinyes whose name means "Unceasing" and who embodies relentless anger
Phonoi
⚡ godMurder, killing, slaughter
The daimones of murder and manslaughter, personifying the bloodshed that stains communities
Lyssa
⚡ godMadness and frenzy
Goddess of mad rage and rabid frenzy who drove Heracles to murder his own children
Ixion
🗡 heroFirst murderer and first sinner
Ixion was the first human to murder a kinsman and the first to attempt seduction of a goddess — bound forever to a spinning wheel of fire.
Hades
⚡ godKing of the dead
The ruler of the Underworld who received the dead, guarded by Cerberus and feared so deeply that Greeks avoided speaking his name.
Erinyes
💭 conceptThe Furies — avengers of crimes
Three terrifying goddesses who punished those guilty of murder, oath-breaking, and crimes against family. Also called the Furies or, euphemistically, the Eumenides.
Tereus and Philomela
🗡 herovengeance, transformation
The myth of a Thracian king who assaulted his sister-in-law and cut out her tongue, only for the sisters to exact gruesome revenge.
Clytemnestra
🗡 heroQueen who murdered Agamemnon
Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon on his return from Troy, driven by rage over Iphigenia's sacrifice.
Danaids
🗡 heropunishment
The fifty daughters of Danaus, forty-nine of whom murdered their husbands and were condemned to fill leaky vessels in Tartarus forever.
Stheno
🐉 creatureimmortality
Eldest and most ferocious of the three Gorgon sisters, immortal unlike Medusa, who pursued Perseus after he beheaded her sister.
Hera
⚡ godQueen of the gods, marriage, family, childbirth
Queen of the Olympian gods and goddess of marriage. Known for her jealous rages against Zeus's lovers and their children.