The preservation of this fire was considered as being so important, that when it happened to expire, all public spectacles were forbidden till the crime was punished. […] The meaning of this fable is, that if men in the midst of crimes are overtaken by the terrors of the wise and just God, they are suddenly stopped in the midst of their wicked purposes, and terrified at their own guilt, by a power who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity with complacency. […] They all, except one, obeyed this inhuman order, and as a punishment for their crime, were sentenced to the continued toil of filling with water vessels which had no bottom. […] To be tormented by the Furies, means that he was sorry for what he had done; that he thought constantly of his murdered mother, and hated himself for his crime. Euripides, one of the Greek poets, says, that Orestes consulted the oracle of Apollo, to learn how he must make amends for his crime, and to escape from the vengeance of the Furies.