Ecimenides (called also Erinnyes, and by the Romans Furiae and Dirae), the avenging goddesses of the Greek mythology, daughters of Night, and tormentors of the wicked both in the upper and the lower world. The Greeks dreaded to call them by an appropriate name, and therefore addressed them euphemistically as the Eumenides, or gracious goddesses. They seem to have been originally a personification of the curses pronounced upon a criminal, and are represented by Homer as resting in the depths of Tartarus till the condemnation of some person for violated pious or hospitable duties wakes them into life and activity. They then pursue the offender with the relentless-ness of fate, chasing him from place to place, allowing him no peace nor rest, moved by no supplications, and supported by the goddess of justice, whose ministers they are. As described by AEschylus, snakes instead of hair enveloped their heads, their eyes were bloody, their faces black and full of hatefulness, and they bore torches and daggers in their fleshless hands.

In the later poets wings were added, and their number was reduced from an indefinite number to three, bearing the names of Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera. The terrific drama of AEschylus entitled "Eumenides" is said to have frightened several Athenian matrons into premature labor, and in subsequent representations upon the stage and in art their appearance was greatly softened down.