Megaera (/məˈɪərə/ mə-JEER; Ancient Greek: Μέγαιρα, romanized: Mégaira, lit.'the jealous one'[1]) is one of the Erinyes, Eumenides or "Furies" in Greek mythology. Bibliotheca Classica states "According to the most received opinions, they were three in number, Tisiphone, "Megaera ... daughter of Nyx and Acheron",[2] and Alecto".[3]

Quick Facts Genealogy, Parents ...
Megaera
Goddess of jealousy and envy
Member of The Erinyes
"Questa e megera dal sinistro canto", front the Divine Comedy, 1793 printing
Genealogy
ParentsUranus or Nyx
SiblingsAlecto and Tisiphone
Close

In other versions, she and her sisters, as well as the Meliae, were born of the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him.[4]

In modern French (mégère), Portuguese (megera), Modern Greek (μέγαιρα), Italian (megera), Polish (megiera), Russian (мегера), Ukrainian (меґера) and Czech (megera), this name denotes a jealous or spiteful woman. She is not to be confused with Megara, the wife of Heracles.

Cultural depictions

Minor planet 464 Megaira is named in her honour.[5]

The 1964 Hammer horror film The Gorgon revolves around the re-emergence of Megaera in a Central European village circa 1910.

Magaera is one of the main characters in the Twilight Zone episode "Ye Gods", which depicts her as the true love of Cupid.

Megaera is a major character in the video game Hades. She is a boss and a potential romance partner to Zagreus, the main character.

Megaera is one of the three antagonists in the video game God of War: Ascension where she is portrayed as a deformed humanoid with spider like appendages.

See also

References

Wikiwand in your browser!

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.

Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.