[Meaning] the Erinyes, who are infernal deities.[1]
They say that they changed their name because of Orestes. For that is when they were first called Eumenides, because they became well-disposed [eumeneis] to him, who was chosen to prevail in the presence of the Athenians, and who brought as a burnt-offering for them a black sheep. But Philemon the comic poet says that the Holy goddesses are different from the Eumenides. Sophocles [writes]: "for the terrible goddesses, maidens of the earth and darkness, hold them."[2]
And [there is] a proverb: "different things [are] beautiful in different places." Inasmuch as some call the Eumenides differently. But certainly other names are acknowledged as beautiful among others, but among us these are acknowledged, to call the Erinyes "Eumenides" as a euphemism.[3]