The name of my blog comes from some of the most feared figures in Greek mythology, the Erinyes, "the angry ones." They were deities of the underworld that enforced justice and enacted terrible vengeance upon humans for crimes against the natural order, such as oath-breaking, perjury, disrespect, arrogance, and murder, especially matricide or patricide. You might say they are one of the most terrifying symbols of a guilty conscience.
They had snakes in their hair, blood dripping from their eyes, poisonous breath, and wings, sometimes bat wings. They tortured the humans that angered them by driving them mad and punishing nations that harbored them, but they were also known for following souls into the underworld and continuing to torment them there. They were so terrifying that Greeks did not refer to them by their real name, the Erinyes, but by the euphemism, Eumenides, which means "the gracious ones," to try and flatter or placate them. Thus my blog's name, Gracious Erinyes.
In my frustration with the blatant falsehoods and misinformation which right-wing groups and media seem to get away with every day and the hundreds of thousands of people who have been adversely affected by obvious fallacies like "trickle down" theory, I have often comforted myself with the thought that the Erinyes might take it upon themselves to punish people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. As far as I can tell, this hasn't happened yet, so I have decided to take on some small part of that role by at least calling out the most blatant falsehoods coming out of the right wing margins of American society and distorting Americans' perception of events.
