Erynia is asteroid #889 and also known as 1918 DG. Erynia was discovered by the German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. Erynia is a non-family asteroid of the main belt’s background population.

Erynia is named after the singular (and additional, superfluous feminization) of the Erinyes from Greek mythology, also known as Furies in Roman mythology. The female deities of vengeance have snakes for hair, dog’s heads, coal black bodies, bat’s wings, and blood-shot eyes. They tortured their victims with brass-studded scourges and inflicted plagues. There were three (as usual for female deities) Erinyes, called Alekto (Ἀληκτώ), Megaira (Μέγαιρα), and Tisiphone (Τισιφόνη) or Teisiphone (Τεισιφόνη). They are thought to be the personification of bad conscience. There are different opinions on their origin. They are either the daughters of Persephone and Hades, or the daughters of Gaia and Skotos, or the daughters of Nyx, or born directly from the spilled blood of Ouranos. After Orestes got exculpated, the Erinyes were called the Eumenides. The goddesses of vengeance could be adjured in the singular form as Erinys. (Yes, i and y changed their places in the name of the asteroid!) She formed under this condition together with Dike and Poine the three (and thus three again) helpers of Nemesis, who is the goddess of retribution.

An asteroid Tisiphone (#466), an asteroid Alekto (#465), and an asteroid Megaira (#464) exist. Their asteroid numbers are all lower than the asteroid number of Erynia. So the Erinyes were already represented as celestial bodies when Erynia got named. Hence Erynia certainly is meant to refer to the helper of Nemesis only. She is also represented in the sky, as asteroid #128. Wikipedia translates Erinys as “implacable”, but already the English Wiktionary doesn’t agree and declares the word untranslatable because of a pre-Greek origin. The French Wiktionary derives the word Erinys from a verb meaning to pursue, to chase. So the involvement of Erynia in the prominent positions in an astrological chart can only (until more evidence is gathered) interpreted as chasing something or somebody for the purpose of retribution.