Harpies

The Harpies (“Snatchers”) were winged female spirits of Greek mythology who swept down and carried things or people away. In the oldest account they are sisters of Iris, daughters of Thaumas and Electra, and swift as the winds. They are best known from the story of the blind king Phineus, whose food they snatched or fouled until the Argonauts came.

Parents and Names

Hesiod says that Thaumas married Electra, a daughter of Oceanus, and she bore swift Iris and the fair-haired Harpies, Aello and Ocypete, who accompany the blasts of the winds and the birds on their swift wings (Hesiod, Theogony 265–269). Apollodorus gives the same parents and names (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.6). Apollodorus also notes that, for a Harpy who fell in the chase, some give the name Nicothoe and others Aellopus, and for the other, Ocypete, Ocythoe, or in Hesiod Ocypode (Library 1.9.21). In Virgil a third Harpy, Celaeno, speaks as a prophetess on the Strophades (Virgil, Aeneid 3.245–246). Homer knows another Harpy, Podarge, who grazed in a meadow by the stream of Oceanus and bore the horses Xanthus and Balius to the west wind Zephyrus (Homer, Iliad 16.148–151).

Appearance

Hesiod describes them as fair-haired and winged. Virgil gives the most famous description: the Harpies have the faces of maidens, a foul discharge from the belly, hooked hands and faces always pale with hunger, and he calls them the most savage plague raised by the anger of the gods out of the Stygian waters (Virgil, Aeneid 3.214–218). In Virgil they swoop down from the mountains with a great clapping of wings, seize the food and defile everything they touch (Aeneid 3.225–228).

The Harpies as Winds

The Harpies were also connected with storm winds. Hesiod says they travel with the blasts of the winds (Theogony 267–269), and Homer uses the Harpies and the storm winds as the agents that snatch people away. Penelope wishes that a storm wind might sweep her away, as storm winds once took Pandareus’ daughters; the Harpies snatched the girls and gave them to the hateful Erinyes to serve (Homer, Odyssey 20.63–78). Telemachus and Eumaeus say that Odysseus, if dead, was carried off without glory by the Harpies (Homer, Odyssey 1.241, 14.371). In these passages the Harpies take away people who vanish without a trace.

King Phineus' Punishment

Phineus, son of Agenor, lived on the coast of Thrace and was a prophet. In Apollonius, Apollo had given him the gift of prophecy, but he used it with no fear even of Zeus and revealed the sacred plan of the god exactly to men. For this Zeus sent him a long old age and took the sight from his eyes, and he could not enjoy the gifts that people brought him for his prophecies. The Harpies darted from the clouds and snatched the food from his mouth and hands; what they left smelled so foul that no one could go near (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.178–193). Apollodorus says that Phineus lived at Salmydessus in Thrace, and notes other versions of why he was blinded: for foretelling the future, or by Boreas and the Argonauts, or by Poseidon (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.21).

Jason and the Argonauts

When the Argonauts reached Phineus, he begged them for help, and it had been foretold that the sons of Boreas, Zetes and Calais, would drive the Harpies away (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.207–245). The heroes laid out a meal for him. The Harpies rushed down at once, swallowed the food and flew off over the sea, leaving the stench behind. The two sons of Boreas, who were winged, pursued them with drawn swords (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.262–277).

In Apollonius, the Boreads would have killed them at the Floating Islands, but Iris, the swift messenger, stopped them: the Harpies were the hounds of great Zeus, and she swore by the water of the Styx that they would never come near Phineus again. The islands were afterwards called the Strophades, and the Harpies went down into a hole in Minoan Crete (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.284–300). Apollodorus gives another version, in which one Harpy fell into a river in the Peloponnese, which was named Harpys after her, and the other fled as far as the Echinades, which then took the name Strophades. He notes that Apollonius says the Harpies were not harmed (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.21).

In gratitude, Phineus told the Argonauts what to expect on their voyage, including how to pass the Clashing Rocks: they should first send a dove between them, and if she got through, they should row on with all their strength (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.311–340).

Harpies Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 265–269; Homer, Iliad 16.148–151; Homer, Odyssey 1.241, 14.371, 20.63–78; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.6, 1.9.21; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.178–340; Virgil, Aeneid 3.209–228, 3.245–246.

See Also: Erinyes, Zeus, Argonauts, Jason, Phineus, Zetes and Calais, Iris, Boreas