Harpies
See also: Harpie
In the Greek Mythology, the Harpies or Harpyes (in Greek old Ἅρπυιαι / Hárpuiai ) is the girls of Thaumas and the Océanide Electra (certain traditions make rather of them the girls of Typhon).
They are divinities of devastation and divine revenge (in Greek old, Ἅρπυια / Hárpuia , “which flies and ransacks”): faster than the wind, invulnerable, caquetantes, they devour all on their passage, leaving only their excrements. According to Hésiode, they have a winged body of bird and a head of woman. Virgile gives them faces of young girls and greenhouses of bird of prey.
Homère makes of them also goddesses of the storms, similar to wild mares (by opposition with the softer winds, which are compared to flexible horses).
“Bitches of Zeus” they steal the hearts and the children. Thus, the girls of Pandaréos were given like slaves to the Erinyes).
Three (or more according to the traditions); one generally finds:
- Aello ( Gust of wind ), sometimes named Nicothoé ( fast Feet );
- Ocypète ( Steals-quickly );
- Podarge ( light Feet ), sometimes named Célaéno ( Obscure ).
The legend of Harpies could come from the grasshoppers. The destruction that they leave on their passage and the fact that they are driven out by the wind of North give credit to this interpretation.
Notes, sources and references
-
(I, 2,6).
- (II, 234 and suiv.).
- (v. 267).
- (I, 241; XX, 61-78).
- (XIV).
- (XIII, 710).
- (IV, 428).
- (III, 212).
See too
- Harpymimus (Latin mimus , “similar to”, “which imitates”), a kind of Dinosaure S bipeds of the family of the Ornithomimidés
- Stryge
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