Hell has no wrath like a woman scorned

‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"




In classical mythology the Furies were avenging deities, fearful goddesses from Tartarus who avenged wrong and punished crime. Fury in the sense of ‘frenzied rage’ may also be intended, esp. in more modern quots. Cf. [EuripidesMedea l. 263] γυνή γὰρ ṯἄλλα μεν ϕόβου ρλέα κακή ᾽τ ἐς ἀλκήν καὶ σίδηρον ɛἰσορᾶν: ὅṯαν δ᾽ ἐς ɛὐνήν ἠδίκημένη κυρῇ, οὐκ ἕσṯίν ἄλλη ϕρήν μίαίϕονωṯέρα, in other circumstances a woman is full of fear and shuns to confront force and iron; but when she has been wronged in a matter of sex, there is no other heart more bloodthirsty. The idea was a commonplace in the Renaissance; e.g. [a 1625 Beaumont; Cher Knight of Malta i. i.] The wages of scorn'd Love is baneful hate.