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 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 mighty Titan Kronos castrated his father Ouranus 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 inminent 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 was armed with Riptide at the last moment by Chiron and his first swipe with the sword connected, turning Alecto into dust and sending her spirit back to the Underworld and on the return trip back to school, 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 was reformed and appeared 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. Percy kills the two other Furies, but Alecto survives. 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 says a lawyer took her out of the Lotus Hotel. This lawyer is Alecto.

The Sword of Hades
They appear after Percy, Thalia, 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 in the final book, calling Percy 'honey' again. Her real name was revealed to be Alecto, and that she works for Hades. She was the 'lawyer' who took Nico di Angelo and his sister out of Lotus Hotel.

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 3 chased both Oedipidus and Orsestes at different time periods.
 * Alecto is the fastest monster to reform during the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, having reformed in the same book.
 * 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 monster to do this was the Ophiotaurus.