Why are the Erinyes Female? or, What is so Feminine about Revenge?
Why are the Erinyes Female? or, What is so Feminine about Revenge?
This chapter focuses on the literary depictions of the Erinyes as personifications of revenge in order to draw conclusions about the gendering of revenge in ancient Greek thought. It asks why the Greeks envisaged the supernatural agents of punishment as female, when acts of blood revenge were typically enacted by men against other men to preserve their honour and attack their enemies. Demonstrating how Erinyes’ gender derives from a variety of sources, including their association with chthonic, thanatological and maternal forces and their links to other mythological figures (such as the Gorgons and Harpies), the chapter argues that the furies should in fact be regarded as ‘transgender’.
Keywords: Erinyes, Gorgons, Harpies, revenge, gender, transgender, gendering of revenge
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