Alecto

"Die, honey!"

- Alecto

Alecto is one of the three Furies, the three chief servants of Hades, and the head torturers in the Underworld. The translation of her name is 'Implacable anger'. She's the one sent after Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief.

History
Furies are female, chthonic deities of vengeance. They represent regeneration, and the potency of creation, which both consumes and empowers.

When the Titan Kronos castrated his father Uranus and threw what was left into the sea, the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood, while Aphrodite was born from the sea foam. According to a variant account, they issued from an even more primordial level- from Nyx, 'Night'. History recognized three: Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone.

In the story Canto VIII of the Inferno, they confront the poets at the gates of the city of Dis. The heads of the Erinyes, whom the two poets met in Canto IV, were wreathed with serpents and their eyes dripped with blood, rendering their appearance rather horrific. Sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird, and the body of a dog.

According to a legend recounted in Bulfinch's Mythology, the Furies played a central role in avenging the tragic death of playwright Ibycus. When two thieves attacked Ibycus on his way to a festival in the Isthmus of Corinth, the poet, realizing his imminent death, appealed to a flock of cranes flying overhead to take up his cause. Later, the murderers attended a theatrical performance in which the "Eumenides," presented as a chorus of Gorgon-like monsters, called out for torment to consume the hearts of the guilty. At that moment, a flock of cranes unexpectedly appeared, causing one of the guilty men to cry out Ibycus' name to his accomplice, thus revealing their identities to the audience. The furies also have a grudge against Athena for interfering with one of their hunts (the hunting of Orestes).

The Lightning Thief
Alecto is disguised as Mrs. Dodds, a pre-algebra teacher at Yancy Academy. She disliked Percy Jackson and it was later discovered that she was actually one of the Furies and not really human at all. When Percy did his first act of inhuman powers (making the water in a fountain reach out of the fountain's basin, grab Nancy Bobofit, and pull her in), Alecto's suspicions of Percy were partially confirmed. Because of his power over water, Alecto discovered that Percy is the son of Poseidon. However, because Hades believed him to be the thief that stole his Helm of Darkness, she brought Percy to an area without any people so she could attack him and find the location of the helm. It is then that she revealed her true form and attacked Percy. Percy, armed with Riptide at the last moment by Chiron, swipes his sword connecting and turning Alecto into dust and sending her spirit back to the Underworld. On the return trip back to school, she was replaced by Mrs. Kerr, another teacher that the students claimed had been there all year and none of them knew who Mrs. Dodds was (except Percy, Chiron, and Grover). Thinking that they were trying to pull a prank on him, Percy would sometimes try and pull a Mrs. Dodds reference around Grover who would continue to claim that there was never a Mrs. Dodds.

She reformed and reappeared with her two sisters--all three of the Furies, Hades' greatest servants--to again confront Percy (and his friends) on a bus as they began their quest. The Furies had to flee, but almost got Percy and his friends in the Underworld.

A short time later, they witnessed Percy's battle with Ares, and Ares' free confession of his own treachery. After Ares left, defeated, Percy gave them the Helm of Darkness to return to its rightful master. Alecto took a moment to tell Percy to become a true hero and never wind up in her clutches again.

The Titan's Curse
Alecto does not appear, but Bianca di Angelo says a lawyer took her and Nico di Angelo out of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. This lawyer is later revealed to be Alecto sent from Hades to retrieve his children and take them to Westover Hall boarding school.

The Sword of Hades
They appear after Percy, Thalia Grace, and Nico defeat Iapetus and give them a lift back to Hades' Palace. They then took the sword to the forges to be finished.

The Last Olympian
Mrs. Dodds appears again, calling Percy 'honey' when Nico brought Percy to Hades to have a talk in return for information about his mother. Alecto was in the room and Nico was surprised when Percy mentioned they had met once before, claiming she used to be his math teacher. When Nico asked his father who the lawyer was that removed him from the Lotus Hotel, Alecto took the form of a lawyer to show that she was the one.

Later, when Nico tried to summon the spirit of his mother, he is instead shown a vision of his past. The vision showed that right after Zeus killed Maria di Angelo, Hades swore revenge and claimed that he would revive Maria, but Alecto advised against it since there were rules over life-and-death that he must respect as the god of the Underworld. Hades agreed with her, but ordered Alecto take Bianca and Nico and remove their memories for their protection, to which Alecto complied and took them to the River Lethe to have their memory erased and placed them in the Lotus Hotel.

Abilities
Being one of the Furies, Alecto is one of the most feared underworld monsters to exist, and display a number of skills:
 * Super Strength: Alecto is very strong, capable of easily lifting a person and tearing apart a mortal or demigod with her talons and sharp teeth.
 * Her sharp teeth and talons are strong enough to pierce flesh and metal.
 * Flight: Alecto can fly through her wings and is reported to be the fastest Fury.
 * Immortality: Alecto doesn't age and, while not indestructible, Alecto can reform much faster than other monsters when turned to dust (after being turned to dust by Percy Jackson, Alecto reformed and retaliated in a matter of hours).
 * Shapeshifting: Alecto can change her demonic appearance to that of a human, regardless of her gender.

The Lightning Thief
In the film, The Lightning Thief, Alecto is played by Maria Olsen. In the book, she is Percy's pre-algebra teacher that came halfway through the year when the previous teacher had a nervous breakdown, while in the film she is a substitute English teacher and the reason why she is at Yancy Academy is not specified.

Trivia

 * Although the series implies that there are only three furies, more than three chased both Oedipidus and Orsestes at different time periods.
 * She is the first Monster to appear in the series, without being disguised by The Mist.
 * Alecto is the fastest monster to reform during the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, having reformed in the same book.
 * She appears to be the leader of the Furies, as Hades trusts her with more work.
 * Alecto is also one of the only monster to appear in the same book several times at different moments, appearing four different times in The Lightning Thief. The only other monsters to do this were the Ophiotaurus and the Manticore.
 * She taught at Yancy Academy with Chiron. She posed as Mrs. Dodds and Chiron posed as Mr. Brunner.