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ALETE. Allecto, one of the Furies, was the sister of Megaera and Tisiphone, and a daughter of the Night. Virgil describes her with snakes in her hair (Aeneid VI.554-556, 570-572).

Alete and her sisters, daughters of the Night, complain endlessly in pain, Tr IV.22-24. The lines may have been influenced by Dante, Inf IX.37-51. [Herenus: Megera: Thesiphone]

The form of the name is the Italian variant.

Dante, Divine Comedy, ed. and trans. C.S. Singleton, I, 1: 90-91; J.L. Lowes, "Chaucer and Dante." MP 14 (1917): 142-148; Virgil, Aeneid, ed. and trans. H.R. Fairclough, I: 544-547.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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