Wineless libationsHoneyMilkWaterA wrong named out loud
Invocation Approach
Tone
Plain reverent not familiar
Address
AlectoThe UnceasingRevered One
Relationship
The anger of a wrong that has not been answered
Warning
She does not distinguish between the guilty and the convenient
Resonance
Those seeking redress and those who must stop a cycle
Symbols
SerpentTorchWhipBloodThe unturned key
Mythology Summary
The Erinyes are born, in Hesiod's Theogony, from the blood of Ouranos that fell on Gaia when Kronos castrated him, together with the Giants and the Meliai (183-187); the same poem also makes them daughters of Nyx. Alecto's name means unceasing, and she is the first of the triad named in Vergil's Aeneid (6.240, 12.845), the earliest source that names all three. The Iliad already invokes the Erinyes as the powers who take vengeance on anyone who swears a false oath (19.259-260).
Modern Practice
Not a comfortable power and not meant to be. Alecto is approached where a wrong has gone unanswered and the anger has not stopped - and, honestly, where the answering of wrong with wrong has not stopped either. The Athenian custom was to give the Erinyes no wine; the offering is plain and the naming is exact.