1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Eumenides

EUMENIDES (from Gr. εὐμενής, kindly; εὖ, well, and μένος, disposition), the “kindly ones,” a euphemism for the Furies or Erinyes (q.v.). They give their name to a famous play by Aeschylus (q.v.), written in glorification of the old religion and aristocratic government of Athens, in opposition to the new democracy of the Periclean period.