Eumenides

[yoo-men-i-deez]

noun

(used with a plural verb) Classical Mythology. a euphemistic name for the Furies, meaning “the Kindly Ones.”

(italics) (used with a singular verb) a tragedy (485 b.c.) by Aeschylus.

Compare Oresteia.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for eumenides

He had lost the sense of what the Chorus was in the hands of the great masters, say in the Bacchae or the Eumenides.
The Poetics|Aristotle
In the Eumenides of Aeschylus, the plea of Orestes in extenuation of his crime is that he is not of kin to his mother.
The God-Idea of the Ancients|Eliza Burt Gamble
The king could not understand why he shrank from writing music to the choruses of schylus's "Eumenides."
Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8 (of 8)|Various
In certain tragedies, these singers personated the Eumenides or Furies.
The Student's Mythology|Catherine Ann White

Here is no need of the Eumenides, children of Night everlasting; for here is very Night herself.
Shakespearean Tragedy|A. C. Bradley

British Dictionary definitions for eumenides

Eumenides

pl n

another name for the Furies, used by the Greeks as a euphemism

Word Origin for Eumenides

from Greek, literally: the benevolent ones, from eumenēs benevolent, from eu- + menos spirit

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for eumenides

Eumenides

Greek, literally "the well-minded ones," a euphemism of the Erinys.