Mythology & Beliefs: Harpies
In Greek and Roman Mythology, Harpies were monsters with heads of women and bodies of birds.
Harpies in Wikipedia
In Greek mythology, a harpy ("snatcher", from Latin
Mythology & Beliefs: Harpies
In Greek and Roman Mythology, Harpies were monsters with heads of women and bodies of birds.
Harpies in Wikipedia
In Greek mythology, a harpy ("snatcher", from Latin: harpeia,
originating in Greek: ἅρπυια, harpūia) was one of the winged
spirits best known for constantly stealing all food from
Phineas. The literal meaning of the word seems to be "that
which snatches" as it comes from the ancient Greek word
harpazein (ἁρπάζειν), which means "to snatch".
A harpy was the mother by the West Wind Zephyros of the horses
of Achilles. In this context Jane Ellen Harrison adduced
the notion in Virgil's Georgics (iii.274) that mares became
gravid by the wind alone, marvelous to say.
Hesiod calls them two "lovely-haired" creatures, perhaps
euphemistically. Harpies as ugly winged bird-women, e.g. in
Aeschylus' The Eumenides (line 50) are a late development, due
to a confusion with the Sirens. Roman and Byzantine writers
detailed their ugliness....
Harpyiae in Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
（Ἅρπυιαι), that is, "the swift robbers," are, in the
Homeric poems, nothing but personified storm winds. (Od.
20.66, 77.) Homer mentions only one by name, viz. Podarge,
who was married to Zephyrus, and gave birth to the two
horses of Achilles, Xanthus and Balius. (Il. 16.149, &c.)
When a person suddenly disappeared from the earth, it was
said that he had been carried off by the Harpies (Od. 1.241,
14.371); thus, they carried off the daughters of king
Pandareus, and gave them as servants to the Erinnyes. (Od.
20.78.) According to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 267, &c.), the Harpies
were the daughters of Thaumas by the Oceanid Electra, fair-
locked and winged maidens, who surpassed winds and birds in
the rapidity of their flight. Their names in Hesiod are
Aello and Ocypete. (Comp. Apollod. 1.2.6.) But even as early
as the time of Aeschylus (Aesch. Eum. 50), they are
described as ugly creatures with wings, and later writers
carry their notions of the Harpies so far as to represent
them as most disgusting monsters. They were sent by the gods
as a punishment to harass the blind Phineus, and whenever a
mea