“ The Law that can pardon and understand can itself be understood and loved. Its ministers are no longer alien and hostile beings, proud of the agonies which they righteously inflict and the hatred which they naturally inspire. They are accepted by Athena as fellow-citizens, and their Law recognized as an inward aspiration, a standard of right living which men consciously need and seek. ”

“ Each of us must fulfil his portion; he cannot escape it: he must not exceed it nor trespass on the Moira of another. And the Moirai, when personified, are the Assigners or Apportioners of man's lot in life. One is reminded of the conception of Righteousness in Plato's Republic, where every man fulfils his "portion" of service to the community.
And the Erînyes. They are the wrath of the dead or the injured acting as a curse and pursuing the transgressor. Orestes, in the Choëphoroe, sees them as "his mother’s wrathful hounds." ”

“ For that diminishing is really a punishment due to the Hubris which the Sun committed when at his height. There are suggestions occasionally that, since every living thing has its own Moira, one Moira might conceivably interfere with another, just as sometimes God may prevent the seed from maturing (Agamemnon, l. 1025) . But in the main the rule that blood calls for blood, that Hubris goes before a fall, or that sin brings punishment, stands as an unbroken natural law, and the Erinyes are its especial guardians. ”

“ Besides that, whenever kindred blood is shed the intolerable stain falls first and most directly on the face of Mother Earth. It pollutes her, and she sends up her punishments from below, blight and barrenness and plague, just as to the innocent in normal times she sends life and fruitfulness. Thus we see that blessing as well as cursing lies in the power of the Chthonian people, the dead, the Erinyes, and collectively of Mother Earth. ”

“ It is because Earth is the home of the dead, the Chthonian people, both the great ancestors who know what is Themis and "the wronged ones in the darkness" who cry for justice on their oppressors. Their wrath is her wrath. ”

“ This idea of a supreme Ruler who, though inscrutably wise, is not perfect but only working his way towards perfection, was developed by Aeschylus in the Prometheus-trilogy, where Zeus, beginning as a conqueror and a tyrant, seems at first like the villain of the piece. But he possesses this peculiar secret: he can learn by his own offences ”

“ Thus Aegisthus, as son of Thyestes, acted quite correctly in killing Agamemnon, and Orestes in killing him. Similarly, when Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon the eternal law compelled Orestes to avenge him, however reluctantly.
But suppose there is no avenger left, what then? It is one of the fears that torment Orestes in Euripides' Electra, "Who will do justice on me, when she is dead?" In that case, though there is no visible human avenger, the Law nevertheless acts. The doer must suffer. That is Dikê, Justice. It is the law of Themis, of Moira, of the Erînyes, and ultimately of Mother Earth. ”

“ If the kinsman has left any children or male representatives, they are bound in honour to take up the blood-feud and do vengeance, even though, if the relationship is very close, it may bring pollution on them. ”