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The Harpies were frightful flying creatures with hooked beaks and claws who always left behind them a loathful stench.
In Hesiod: "(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep- flowing Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired Harpies, Aello (Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they dart along.
Ephorus (30) in Strabo, vii. 302: Hesiod, in the so-called Journey round the Earth, says that Phineus was brought by the Harpies `to the land of milk-feeders (31) who have waggons for houses.'
Fragment #40A -- (Cp. Fr. 43 and 44) Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 2 (3rd cent. A.D.): (32) ((LACUNA -- Slight remains of 7 lines)) (ll. 8-35) `(The Sons of Boreas pursued the Harpies) to the lands of the Massagetae and of the proud Half-Dog men, of the Underground-folk and of the feeble Pygmies; and to the tribes of the boundless Black-skins and the Libyans. Huge Earth bare these to Epaphus -- soothsaying people, knowing seercraft by the will of Zeus the lord of oracles, but deceivers, to the end that men whose thought passes their utterance (33) might be subject to the gods and suffer harm -- Aethiopians and Libyans and mare-milking Scythians. For verily Epaphus was the child of the almighty Son of Cronos, and from him sprang the dark Libyans, and high-souled Aethiopians, and the Underground-folk and feeble Pygmies. All these are the offspring of the lord, the Loud-thunderer. Round about all these (the Sons of Boreas) sped in darting flight.... ....of the well-horsed Hyperboreans -- whom Earth the all- nourishing bare far off by the tumbling streams of deep-flowing Eridanus.... ....of amber, feeding her wide-scattered offspring -- and about the steep Fawn mountain and rugged Etna to the isle Ortygia and the people sprung from Laestrygon who was the son of wide-reigning Poseidon. Twice ranged the Sons of Boreas along this coast and wheeled round and about yearning to catch the Harpies, while they strove to escape and avoid them. And they sped to the tribe of the haughty Cephallenians, the people of patient-souled Odysseus whom in aftertime Calypso the queenly nymph detained for Poseidon. Then they came to the land of the lord the son of Ares.... ....they heard. Yet still (the Sons of Boreas) ever pursued them with instant feet. So they (the Harpies) sped over the sea and through the fruitless air...'
Note on the previous: Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas, who were amongst the Argonauts, delivered Phineus from the Harpies. The Strophades (`Islands of Turning') are here supposed to have been so called because the sons of Boreas were there turned back by Iris from pursuing the Harpies.
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 296: Others say (the islands) were called Strophades, because they turned there and prayed Zeus to seize the Harpies. But according to Hesiod... they were not killed.
The most complete description in in the (ll. 178-208) There Phineus, son of Agenor, had his home by the sea, Phineus who above all men endured most bitter woes because of the gift of prophecy which Leto's son had granted him aforetime. And he reverenced not a whit even Zeus himself, for he foretold unerringly to men his sacred will. Wherefore Zeus sent upon him a lingering old age, and took from his eyes the pleasant light, and suffered him not to have joy of the dainties untold that the dwellers around ever brought to his house, when they came to enquire the will of heaven. But on a sudden, swooping through the clouds, the Harpies with their crooked beaks incessantly snatched the food away from his mouth and hands. And at times not a morsel of food was left, at others but a little, in order that he might live and be tormented. And they poured forth over all a loathsome stench; and no one dared not merely to carry food to his mouth but even to stand at a distance; so foully reeked the remnants of the meal."
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