Eumenidesn.
/juːˈmɛnɪdiːz/ Mythology.
With plural agreement. Euphemistic name for the Furies (see fury n. 5). Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > classical deity > [noun] > the Furies
dire1610
Eumenides1651
the snaky sisters1728
dire sisters1743
the mind > emotion > anger > furious anger > [noun] > personified > in myth
Eumenides1651
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. viii. 37 The same Græcians did often ascribe madnesse, to the operation of the Eumenides.
1794 T. Taylor tr. Pausanias Descr. Greece I. ii. xi. 166 A grove of scarlet oaks, which contains a temple of those goddesses which the Athenians call Semnai, and the Sicyonians Eumenides.
1853 J. R. Lowell in Putnam's Monthly Mag. Nov. 458/1 Driven by the Eumenides of unfulfilled purpose.
1870 J. Ruskin Lect. Art vi. 150 While Apollo or Athena only slay, the power of Demeter and the Eumenides is over the whole life.
1939 T. S. Eliot Family Reunion i. ii. 62 The curtains part, revealing the Eumenides in the window embrasure.
1986 N.Y. Times 19 Oct. vii. 7/3 We can think of him only as a sympathetic hero hounded by the Eumenides of lust.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1993; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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