They were famously depicted with snakes for hair, bat wings, and eyes that wept blood. They hounded their victims into madness or physical illness, as seen in their pursuit of Orestes after he killed his mother, Clytemnestra.
As servants of Hades and Persephone, they oversaw the torture of the damned in Tartarus. The Evolution into "Kindly Ones" The Furies
The most significant shift in their mythology occurs in Aeschylus' trilogy, the Oresteia . When Athena intervenes to put Orestes on trial, she successfully transitions society from a system of endless blood-feuds to one of organized litigation. To appease the Furies' loss of power, Athena offers them a home in Athens and renames them the (the "Kindly Ones"). This transformation symbolizes the domestication of raw vengeance into the structured, civilizing force of justice. Modern Interpretations They were famously depicted with snakes for hair,