Maniae — spirits that personified madness

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Maniae were spirits that personified insanity and madness. Along with their sister Lyssa, the spirit of rage and rabies, they worked together; they were all considered daughters of the primordial deity Nyx (night).

Pausanias writes that on the road from Megalopolis to Messene there was a sanctuary, which, according to local citizens, was devoted to goddesses called Maniae, and that its surrounding district was also called Maniae (Μανίας). His local sources told him that it was there that madness overtook Orestes, hence Pausanias's view that these Maniae were the vengeful Furies.