Tisiphone in Greek tradition
As an Erinys, Tisiphone is an avenging spirit concerned with murder, kin-slaying and blood guilt. Born from drops of Uranus’s blood that fell on Earth after Cronus wounded him, she joined Alecto and Megaera in dwelling in the underworld and tormenting the unatoned dead. At Hera’s command, Tisiphone entered Athamas’s house, bringing fear and madness that led him to kill Learchus after mistaking his son for a stag.
The quick answers
Who is Tisiphone?
Tisiphone is a Greek being associated with vengeance for murder, punishment of kin-slaying, blood guilt, retribution against criminals, madness inflicted on the guilty.Source
Source
- Classical Mythology a to Z
- Greek Myths & Tales
What is Tisiphone the god of?
vengeance for murder, punishment of kin-slaying, blood guilt, retribution against criminals, madness inflicted on the guiltySource
Source
- Classical Mythology a to Z
- Greek Myths & Tales
What family links are recorded for Tisiphone?
Father: Uranus, Mother: Gaia.
Tisiphone’s family, at a glance
Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.
The names Tisiphone answers to
Erinys
An Erinys, or avenging spirit
SourceClassical Mythology a to Z
Fury
An avenging underworld spirit
SourceClassical Mythology a to Z
Dira
A Roman Fury or dread avenger
SourceClassical Mythology a to Z
The myths of Tisiphone
2 myths, each traced to its primary text and corpus sources.
Tisiphone Maddens Athamas and Ino
Tisiphone entered the house of Athamas at Hera’s command. Fear, grief and madness followed her. The doors seemed black, the posts shook, and Athamas and Ino tried to flee. Tisiphone blocked their way. Snakes covered her arms and hair, hissed around her shoulders, and spat poison. She drew two snakes from her hair and threw one at Athamas and one at Ino. The serpents crawled across their breasts and filled their minds with violent confusion.
Hera’s anger arose because Athamas and Ino had taken in the young Dionysos, her husband’s child by another woman. Hera also sought the ruin of Athamas and his house. Under the madness sent by Tisiphone, Athamas saw his elder son Learchus as a white stag. He seized his bow, cried out that he had found the animal, and shot him with an arrow. He then tore apart the boy’s still-quivering body.
Ino seized her younger son Melicertes and fled. Athamas pursued her. Dionysos temporarily blinded him, so Athamas mistook a she-goat for Ino and began to beat it. Ino reached the Molurian Rock with Melicertes. She leaped into the sea and was drowned. The rock later gained an evil reputation because Sciron threw strangers from it.
Zeus remembered Ino’s kindness to Dionysos. He therefore did not send her ghost to Tartarus. He made her the goddess Leucothea, and made Melicertes the god Palaemon.
In the modern world
No modern rework confirmed yet.
3 sources· checked 2026-08-18
- 1The Greek MythsT1
- 2Apollodorus, The LibraryT1
Quote
“Hera sent Tisiphone against Athamas and Ino, driving Athamas to kill Learchus and Ino to leap into the sea with Melicertes, whom Zeus later made divine.”
Apollodorus, The Library
- 3The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1
The Birth of Tisiphone and the Erinyes
Cronus attacked Uranus while he slept. Mother Earth, angered because Uranus had thrown the Cyclopes into Tartarus, had persuaded the Titans to rebel against him. She gave Cronus a flint sickle, and he used it to wound and castrate his father. He held the severed genitals in his left hand, then threw them and the sickle into the sea by Cape Drepanum.
Drops of blood from Uranus's wound fell upon Mother Earth. She conceived and bore the Three Erinyes, also called the Furies. Their names were Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. The same blood also produced the nymphs of the ash tree, called the Meliae. In another account, the blood that fell on Earth produced the Furies and the Giants, who were born later.
The Erinyes became female divinities who punished the guilty. They avenged crimes of parricide and perjury, and embodied the torment of an evil conscience and the remorse that follows wrongdoing. Their home was the lower world. There, Hades and Persephone employed them to chastise and torment the dead who had committed crimes during their lives and had not been reconciled with the gods before entering Hades.
In the modern world
No modern rework confirmed yet.
3 sources· checked 2026-08-18
- 1The Greek MythsT1
- 2Apollodorus, The LibraryT1
Quote
“The blood of Uranus that fell upon Earth produced the Erinyes, Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera, who punished parricide, perjury and other unatoned crimes among the dead.”
Apollodorus, The Library
- 3Greek Myths & TalesT1
Also appears in
The myths across MythSource where Tisiphone features, each on that figure’s page.
- The Birth of Alecto from Uranus’s Blood · on Alecto
- Aphrodite Punishes Myrrha · on Aphrodite
- Cloelia Escapes from Etruscan Hostage · on Cloelia
- Cronus Imprisons the Cyclopes · on Cronus
- Cronus Overthrows Uranus · on Cronus
- The Castration of Uranus · on Cronus
- Demeter, Poseidon, and the Horse Arion · on Demeter
- Gaia and the Imprisoned Titans · on Gaia
- Gaia's Revolt Against Uranus · on Gaia
- Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus · on Galatea
- Gilgamesh and Enkidu Become Friends · on Gilgamesh
- The Birth of the Meliae · on Meliae
- Njord Rules Sweden and Dies · on Njord
- The Birth of Phobos and Deimos · on Phobos
- Polyphemus Courts Galatea · on Polyphemus
- Poseidon Pursues Demeter · on Poseidon
- The Creation of the Horse · on Poseidon
- The Overthrow of Uranus · on Uranus
- Uranus Imprisons His Children · on Uranus
3 works catalogued
This is the candidate catalogue for Tisiphone: candidate reworks first, then references, then names used as atmosphere. Nothing here has been checked against a source yet. Only reviewed myth-to-work links are promoted in Overview.
Showing 3 of 3 works.
Game2
- HadesRework
- God of War: AscensionRework
Book1
- The Divine ComedyRework
These are catalogue candidates, not proof that every work retells this figure. Reviewed myth-to-work links appear in Overview.
What this page is built from
About this page
Written and maintained by MythSource. Last reviewed not yet recorded. How a page gets built.
4 sources are cited on this page, primary texts and corpus scholarship, listed below.
Cite this page
MythSource. (n.d.). Tisiphone. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/tisiphone
"Tisiphone." MythSource, n.d., www.mythsource.com/figures/tisiphone.
"Tisiphone." MythSource. n.d. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/tisiphone.
The mythology summaries and identity fields on this page are grounded in the primary texts and scholarship above. The appearance table records candidates separately; only reviewed joins are presented as modern reworks in Overview.
The film
The Underdrawing video on Tisiphone embeds here once it publishes.