Tisiphone

For other uses, see Tisiphone (disambiguation)

Tisiphone (Ancient Greek: Τισιφόνη, "avenging murder") is the name of two figures in Greek mythology.

Tisiphone maddens Athamas & Ino

Erinyes

Tisiphone was one of the Erinyes or Furies, and sister of Alecto and Megaera. She was the one who punished crimes of murder: parricide, fratricide and homicide. A myth recounts how Tisiphone fell in love with Cithaeron, she gets furious because of his despise , she throws a snake for her head and caused his death by snakebite, specifically, by one of the snakes from her head. In Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid, Tisiphone is recognized as the furious and cruel guardian of the gates of Tartarus.

Geoffrey Chaucer makes reference to her in his work Troilus and Criseyde

Daughter of Manto and Alcmaeon

Tisiphone was the daughter of Alcmaeon and Manto. Alcmaeon accidentally left his children, Tisiphone and Amphilochus, with Creon. Creon's wife sold Tisiphone into slavery, envious of her beauty. She did not realize that Tisiphone's purchaser was acting on behalf of her father. When Alcmaeon returned, he rescued his daughter and recovered his son.

Modern culture

• Between 1790 and 1973 there was a British naval sloop called Tisiphone.[1]
• Fury is a DC Comics character empowered by Tisiphone.
• Tisiphone is incorrectly mentioned as one of the Gorgons in the British horror movie The Gorgon from 1964.
• Tisiphone appears in Path of the Fury, a 1992 military science fiction book by David Weber (reissued with a prequel backstory in 2006 as In Fury Born). There, thousands of years in the future, a fading Tisiphone merges with a dying, former Imperial Cadre drop commando, Alicia DeVries, and helps wreak vengeance on the space pirates who killed DeVries' family.
• The Game Boy Advance game Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Nintendo DS game Golden Sun: Dark Dawn both feature a weapon named the 'Tisiphone Edge', a light blade that unleashes a special critical attack called 'Vengeance'.
• Tisiphone appears as a major supporting character in the WebMage series of Cyberpunk fantasy novels by Kelly McCullough.
• The character Tisiphone featured in the stage play Rough Magic, written by Roberto Aguirre Sacasa. She was portrayed by John Misselwitz at the Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, New York, 2005.
• In the video game Tomb Raider: Underworld, Megaera and Tisiphone are the names of two sister ships which form part of the game's setting.
• In the video game God of War III, the player must pass the Gates of Tisiphone on his way to Tartarus.
• In the video game God of War: Ascension, Tisiphone along with her sisters, Megaera and Alecto are the main antagonists. Always accompanied by a blue phoenix like creature, Tisiphone manipulates protagonist Kratos mind by posing as various figures from his Spartan past.

See also

• Family tree of the Greek gods