Furies

The Furies, also known as Erinyes, are goddesses of vengeance who serve the god Hades. They are his torturers in the Underworld and punish the crimes of the wicked. In Greek mythology, each Fury was sometimes represented as avenging a certain type of crime, such as crime, grudges, or murder. Ironically enough, they are often referred to as the Kindly Ones, in order to remain safe from them. They are sometimes misidentified with the arai, spirits of curses. Their Roman counterpart are the Dirae.

History
The Furies emerged from the goddess Nyx alone.

History recognized three:
 * Alecto, "The Angry"
 * Megaera, "The Grudging"
 * Tisiphone, "The Avenger"

In the story of 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. Since the Greeks were afraid of saying their names they are called by different euphemisms.



Description
The Furies are described in Classical Mythology as winged women with snake-like hair, with whips and snakes wrapped around their bodies, and wearing dark robes. Also if they cry (which is very rare), they cry blood.

Yet, in the books, they have leathery wings like bats, claws, a mouth full of yellow fangs and glowing eyes. They carry whips that dance with flames every time they flick them. While disguised as mortal women, they carried handbags, wore crumpled velvet dresses, and shapeless knit hats of different colors.

The Lightning Thief
Alecto is disguised as Mrs. Dodds: a pre-algebra teacher at Yancy Academy. She dislikes Percy Jackson and always seems to prefer Nancy Bobofit, the class bully. It is later discovered that she was actually one of the Furies and thus not a human. On a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Percy kills her with Riptide (Although he does not realize it is Riptide yet; he thinks that he hallucinated everything that happened, including Mr. Brunner throwing him the pen.) and the monster disintegrates into dust.

Percy later fights Alecto (along with the other two Furies) again while on a bus just as he is setting out on his quest, and wins with the help of Grover and Annabeth.

Percy encounters the Furies when in the Underworld upon encountering Hades. After hearing what really occurred with the theft of Zeus' master bolt and Hades' helm of darkness during Percy's fight with Ares, the Furies arrive once the battle has ended, and Percy gives them the helm to return to Hades.

The Sword of Hades
Nico di Angelo summoned the three Furies to take himself, Bob, Percy, and Thalia Grace back to Hades' Palace.

The Last Olympian
It is revealed that Alecto was the "lawyer" who brought Nico and Bianca di Angelo to the Lotus Hotel and Casino under Hades's orders. After about 70 years, Hades had the Fury get his children out as he hoped that one of them could be the child in the Great Prophecy. The Furies also appeared to carry Nico and Percy to Hades's throne room before Percy bathes in the River Styx.

The House of Hades
When Percy and Annabeth were attacked by the arai, Percy initially thought that they were the Furies. Then he noted that there were several arai, contrary to the three Furies. Later, he noted that the Erinyes were better, as they could be contained by Hades.

Later, the goddess Nyx named Vengeance as one of her children. This could either refer to the Furies or Nemesis, all of whom are children of Night.

Trivia

 * Alecto seems to be the leader of the three because she is always in the middle and Hades always makes her do the work.
 * According to Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, the Furies rose from droplets of Ouranos' blood, which had splattered everywhere when Kronos killed Ouranos.