The Oresteia: How do the Furies become the Eumenidies?

In the Oresteia, the furies are monsters that are gods, but yet are denied their place as gods. They are hideous, and delight in death, destruction and torture. They have nothing better to do with their time than hunt down patricides and matricides regardless of the justice of their actions. However, in return for their ceasing to hunt down Orestes, they are given a place in the city of Athens, and become the Eumenindes, rather than the Furies. So how does their being given a place in the city turn them from being the Furies into the Kindly Ones?

The Furies are just what their name implies—the goddesses of fury. So in asking what place the Furies have in the city, one is actually asking what role fury itself ought to play in society. Fury has a bad reputation, being the thing that has spurred lots of unpleasant events. Fury, however, can be quite useful if used properly. For instance, fear of vigilante justice, or fury, helps to keep the crime rates down and justice rates up.

The Furies, when acting without an aim, were almost exclusively destructive. Fury that is not aimed in the right direction is like a gun shot straight in the air. One can rarely predict who it will hit, but innocent people usually get hurt. Unfocused fury is bad for society.

Fury that is aimed at promoting justice and protecting the city, however, is good. It has a strong restraining effect on crime. If criminals know that the only thing that could happen to them is that they could get caught by police, they are a lot more likely to do criminal acts than if they know that their victim might have a gun, and might shoot them, or that some random vigilante might come after them.

When the Furies are not given a place in the city, they will show themselves as a somewhat random destructive force. When, however, they are given a place in the city, they act as a form of vigilante justice, adding to the power of the law, and also providing a reason for the law to stay just. The Furies become the Kindly Ones.