The Furies Kaos: Who were the real Furies?

WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS

Kaos has just arrived on Netflix and the Furies appear in the third episode of the series. They are seen following a man into a gas station bathroom.

The man is clearly distraught and pleads for the three women to end their torment, to which they inform him he already knows what to do. With this, the man shoots himself in the head, bringing an end to the torture.

Later in the series, the Furies are seen again visiting Ari (Leila Farzad) as they wish to inform her of the truth about what happened to her brother, Glaucus (Fady Elsayed). Ari's father had told her she killed her twin as a baby.

The Furies reveal this was not the case, and in fact it was the gods who said he must be killed so that Ari's father's prophecy did not come true. The Furies take Ari back in time to when she and her brother were babies, and Ari's father was terrified of his prophecy.

Unable to kill his unborn son, Ari's father ordered him to be locked away, where he became the minotaur.

The real Furies from Greek mythology were otherwise known as the Erinyes or the Eumenides.

As the Netflix series suggests, they were the Chthonic goddesses of vengeance.

Ari believed the Furies had come to make her pay for the fact she killed her brother as a child.

Their task according to Greek mythology was to hear complaints brought by mortals and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly until they could no longer live with themselves.

Theoi Greek Mythology explained: "The wrath of the Erinyes manifested itself in a number of ways. The most severe of these was the tormenting madness inflicted upon a patricide or matricide.

"Murderers might suffer illness or disease; and a nation harbouring such a criminal, could suffer dearth, and with it hunger and disease.

"The wrath of the Erinyes could only be placated with the rite ritual purification and the completion of some task assigned for atonement."

Kaos is available to watch on Netflix