The Maniae /ˈmeɪni.iː/ (singular: Mania Μανία /ˈmeɪniə/), in ancient Greek religion, are a spirit or group of spirits personifying insanity, madness, and crazed frenzy. They operate closely with Lyssa, the spirit of mad rage, frenzy, and rabies; and, like Lyssa, are presumed to be daughters of Nyx. They are also associated with the Erinyes, the three fearsome goddesses of vengeance.
They are also sometimes said (though, perhaps in jest, or as a metaphor for love's sometimes cruel nature) to have been nurses of the god Eros.
Pausanias write that at the road from Megalopolis to Messene there was a sanctuary of goddesses. Citizens called the goddesses and the district around the sanctuary Maniae (Μανίας) and they said that it was there that madness overtook Orestes.[1]
References