Hence we are of the opinion that Aeschylus, feeling that he was not bound by any definite traditional form, conceived the Erinnyes as monsters-in-general, but with a predominantly human shape in order to prepare the way for their subsequent transformation into Semnai Theai. In a certain still extant vase-painting[87] which represents a scene from the _Eumenides_, the figure of the Fury could be transformed into the image of a respectable goddess by merely removing the snake which hisses at Orestes, above her head! But the nature and function of the ‘tragic’ Erinnyes are not the invention of Aeschylus. Their form, indeed, his hand defined, but their nature and their character had long been enshrined in traditional legend. We have suggested[88] the social, legal, and religious transitions which led to the birth of these quasi-diabolical monsters. While the docile Pelasgian ghosts of primeval days have many affinities with the Semnai Theai in whose forms Pausanias[89] could discern nothing terrible or dreadful, the ‘tragic’ Erinnyes, which are a product of post-Homeric times,[90] appear in the rôle of avengers so savage and so implacable that they cannot be recognised by either ghosts or gods. Thus Apollo says to Orestes[91]: Even now thou see’st those Furies overtaken, Their madness lost in sleep: maidens abhorred, Aged, but ever crude, whom none that lives, Man, god or beast e’er met in fellowship. To evil they were born, evil the gloom Of Tartarus, their haunt beneath the ground, And hated both of men and gods in Heaven The power they exercise. We have already discussed[92] the problem involved in the refusal, on the part of the Erinnyes in this play, to recognise the purgation of Orestes. This purgation ceremony is quite naturally attributed by Aeschylus to Apollo, who was the pioneer deity of the purgation-system. It could not have been performed in historical times by priests or purifiers, since the matricide had not been previously acquitted by a court. Hence the purgation of an untried kin-slayer, which in Attic law would have been invalid, was naturally rejected by the Erinnyes. They say[93]: Such deeds the younger brood of gods will do, Swaying all things by force beyond the right. One sheet of gore, mantled from base to cope, Earth’s midmost shrine is visibly beheld Self-cloaked with horror-breathing guilt of blood. O prophet-god! Thou hast stained thine own hearthstone From thine own mind, moved by no just appeal, Breaking the law of gods to honour man. But Apollo regards them as Titan-rebels, as deities of a barbarous past. He sees in them the avengers of the Dark Ages.[94]