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For other uses, see Megaera (disambiguation).

Megaera (Ancient Greek: Μέγαιρα, English translation: "the jealous one") is one of the Erinyes, Eumenides or "Furies" in Greek mythology. Lamprière's Classical Dictionary states "According to the most received opinions, they were three in number, Tisiphone, Megara [sic] and Alecto"^[1] and "Megaera ... daughter of Nox and Acheron".^[2]

Megaera is the cause of jealousy and envy, and punishes people who commit crimes, especially marital infidelity. Like her sisters Alecto and Tisiphone, she was born of the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. In modern French (mégère), Portuguese (megera), modern Greek (μεγαιρα), Italian (megera) and Russian (мегера), this name denotes a jealous or spiteful woman - Google translates all five as "shrew".

Thorne Smith includes a character Megaera (mostly referred to as "Meg") in The Night Life of the Gods (1931). Despite the presence in the story of Neptune, Mercury, Venus and other immortals, she does not date from Classical times, was born around 1000, and has a character almost diametrically opposed to that cited for her namesake in the previous paragraph.

Modern culture [link]

• Megaera is one of the main characters in the British horror movie The Gorgon from 1964, and is there incorrectly considered to be one of the three Gorgons, the other two being Medusa (correct) and Tisiphone (incorrect).

References [link]

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See also [link]

• Family tree of the Greek gods

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