EUMENIDES. – Minor Greek deities identified with the Erinnyes (q.v.), although some of the ancients considered them distinct. They are benevolent, fostering fertility and fruitfulness. They received in sacrifice a pregnant ewe, as well as offerings of honey and flowers.
They were worshipped at Athens beneath the Areopagus, at Sicyon, at Argos, at Colonus, at Megalopolis, and at Cyrene, where they are depicted holding flowers and serpents and invoked for offspring.
BIBL.: W. F. Otto, Gli dèi della Grecia, trad. II. di G. Federici Airoldi, Firenze 1941, p. 19 ff. Luisa Banti.