Alecto

In early Greek accounts (e.g., Hesiod) the Erinyes are primordial offspring associated with the earth: daughters of Gaea produced from the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. These collective figures of retributive justice are later individualized in Roman literary treatments; Alecto becomes named as one of the three sisters (Alecto, Tisiphone, Megaera) who execute vengeance among mortals. The supplied sources emphasize the Erinyes' cosmic/earthly origin as foundational to their role as immanent enforcers of moral order.

Classical summaries describe the Erinyes collectively as winged chthonic beings with snakes in their hair and gore/blood often associated with their visage (blood described as dripping from their eyes in summaries of the trio). The provided materials do not attribute an independent, consistently detailed physical description unique to Alecto beyond later literary scenes in which she changes shape or enters human bodies for purposes of influence or possession.

Across the literary attestations in the supplied sources, Alecto functions as an executor of retributive anger: she castigates moral crimes among humans and can inflict madness as punishment. Virgil's Aeneid (Book VII) individualizes her actions—Juno dispatches her to obstruct Trojan settlement; she possesses Queen Amata, disguises herself (for example as a priestess) to speak in dreams, incites Latin mothers to riot, and in one episode physically attacks Turnus with a torch, inflaming him with a passion for war. These sources show both subtle psychological operations (dream‑apparition, disguise, incitement, possession) and, in specific literary episode(s), direct physical intervention used to provoke violence.