Commentary Inf IX 38-48

'The three Erinyes or Furies, Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, who dwelt in the depths of Hell and punished men both in this world and after death' (Erine). See Aeneid VI.570-575. In Virgil, as in Greek myth, these three sisters are punishers of crimes of blood. Dante sees them as the handmaids of Proserpina (or Hecate), the queen of hell. What has not often been pointed out (but see the interesting gloss by Poletto [DDP Poletto.Inf.IX.46-48]) is that, while in the Aeneid each of the three Furies is named, their names never appear together (Megaera in XII.846, Alecto in VII.324, and Tisiphone in VI.555, VI.571, and X.761). Pietro di Dante (comm. vv. 34-48) cites an anonymous poem for the following passage, apparently as his father's source: 'Tres agitant mentes Furie, ratione carentes. / Tunc est Tesiphone cum res est pessima mente; / at cum mente fera dispumat in ore Megera; / re perpetrata tunc est Alecto vocata.'