Definitions for "Erinyes"
the Furies; they are three sisters named Tisiphone, Megaera, and Alecto; they were supposedly born out of anger and their job is to seek revenge on people who have committed crimes; in Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, the final play, the Eumenides chronicles the change of these goddesses from the Erinyes to the Eumenides (the “Kindly Ones”) and the creation of a legal justice system.
(classical mythology) the hideous snake-haired monsters (usually three in number) who pursued unpunished criminals
In Greek mythology the Erinyes (Ερινύες) or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. When a formulaic oath in the Iliad (iii.278ff; xix.260ff) invokes "those who beneath the earth punish whoever has sworn a false oath. The Erinyes are simply an embodiment of the act of self-cursing contained in the oath" (Burkert 1985 p 198).