In Greek and Roman mythology, Tisiphone, also known as Tilphousia, was one of the three Erinyes (Furies). She punishes crimes of murder, particularly that of family relatives. She is the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and is the sister of Alecto and Megaera.
In Greek and Roman Mythology[]
In multiple Roman sources, Tisiphone is described as "clothed in a blood-wet dress"[1], "pale and raging among the warring thousands"[2], and "wears a dripping red robe and who has a serpent coiled around her waist"[3]. In Tibullus's elegies, Tisiphone is unkempt with fierce snakes instead of hair.
Her snakes in her hair is also noted in some authors. She can extract serpent breath from her hair to cause madness[3]. She is seen letting her serpent locks lap at the sulfuric waters of the Cocytus river in Statius' Thebaid.
According to Virgil's Aeneid, she is the gatekeeper of Tartarus[1]. In Tibullus's elegies she also chases impious souls here and there,
She is said to turn people mad, for example in Statius' Thebaid, she cursed Tydeus to commit cannibalism, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, she was sent by Juno (Hera), still mad at Europa decided to punish Cadmus' descendants, including Ino and Athamas who were attacked by the Fury Tisiphone in which she made Athamas driven mad by magical venomous snakes causing him to be driven to kill his own family and so slew his infant son, Learchus, hunting him down like a stag, and set out in frenzied pursuit of Ino. To escape him, Ino threw herself into the sea with her son Melicertes[3].
According to Pseudo-Plutarch's De fluviis, she fell in love with a mortal named Cithaeron, who rejected her. Tisiphone then summoned a snake to bite Cithaeron, and the mortal died. A mountain in Boeotia is renamed to Cithaeron in honor of this tragedy[4].
In Popular Culture[]
In Literature[]
In Television[]
In the Femme Fatales episode "Girls Gone Dead", the college girl, Tiffany, tells cameraman Jay Roma not only that her real name is Jessica, but also that the name Tiffany is a variation of the Greek name Tisiphone, the goddess of vengeance.
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References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Virgil's Aeneid Book VI verses 535-627 The Sibyl Describes Tartarus https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidVI.php#_Toc2242935
- ↑ Virgil's Aeneid Book X verses 755-832 The Death of Mezentius’s Son, Lausus https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidX.php#anchor_Toc5266113
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ovid's Metamorphoses Book IV verses 464-511 Tisiphone maddens Athamas and Ino https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph4.htm
- ↑ https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0400%3Achapter%3D2