Myth Monsters

Harpies

March 03, 2022 Season 2 Episode 9
Myth Monsters
Harpies
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Show Notes Transcript

Tune into this week to hear all about the horrifying Harpies from Greek mythology! How did this monster get turned into a misogynistic insult? What did the Harpies do for the Gods? Find out this week! 

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INTRO:


Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 


These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.


I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.


This week we’re heading back to my fave mythos, and that’s Greek with the amazing talon-feathered ladies, the Harpy. Yes, you could certainly argue that I have a love for the half-women, half animal creatures, and I do - I’ll be completely honest there. They’re always my first choice if they’re available in a video game, ya know.


DESCRIPTION:


The Harpy is generally described as a half woman, half-bird wind spirit, although there are two descriptions of them, but this is the baseline knowledge for what they are. 


In original myths, Harpies had the heads of women, who looked incredibly gaunt and sad, with the bodies of an eagle, with long talons. They were the size of a crouching adult, so they were also pretty big - and were able to snatch up people and animals alike. They had an ear-splitting screech that could summon their sisters to their side, as Harpies are also pack animals. They would usually hang around in threes, and usually associated with carrion and death. 


Through different tellings from different Grecian poets, we do get different descriptions though, Aeschylus called them disgusting in this lovely extract;


These are wingless in appearance, black, altogether disgusting; they snore with repulsive breaths, they drip from their eyes hateful drops; their attire is not fit to bring either before the statues of the gods or into the homes of men. I have never seen the tribe that produced this company, nor the land that boasts of rearing this brood with impunity and does not grieve for its labour afterwards.


Virgil called them bird-bodied, girl-faced things, and Ovid described them as human-vultures. These harpies were truly a sore sight, and they were constantly hungry - always looking out for the next thing to eat. They were able to eat people, but they mostly fed on cattle, fish or even vegetation. In fact, they were known for having two main purposes, one was stealing food from their victims and the other was to carry people to the Underworld - and not the good part of it either. It was said that if someone went missing, they had been taken off by the harpies, so that’s pretty intense. 


However, the vision of Harpies changed over time - and the more modern adaptations also made their way into the core folklore. If you ask someone now what a Harpy is, they’ll most likely describe this new version. This is of a half-bird, half-woman, who is astonishingly beautiful and bewitches every creature they come into contact with with their incredible singing. 


They are usually humanoid in form, but with feathers acting as breezy underwear, but the way you could tell they were a Harpy for sure is that they would have eagle looking feet, complete with finger long talons for ripping flesh. Very much male gazed up, but this is the newer and to be honest, more appealing description of the two. 


Now I said earlier that they are wind spirits - not just monsters and I wanted to touch a little more on this. They are meant to represent a force of destruction, they purely symbolise the dangerous parts of storm winds, which would affect sailors or anyone living too close to the coast - where they tend to live and Greece is almost an archipelago, so there’s a lot of water there. They eventually evolved from wind spirits to just seductress birds, but they could still harness the power of the wind in their attacks, and fly faster than most birds. 


So how do you kill a Harpy if you bump into one? Sexy or not? Like most birds, the answer is usually simple - fire. You could only take out a harpy though if you managed to strike its heart first, which would incapacitate it for a while, then you would have to set it on fire to finish her off. Or you could just use a burning arrow here, that works too. 


ORIGIN:


Onto my favourite little segment, and that’s etymology! The word harpy derives from the Greek verb harpazein meaning “to snatch”. So most of the time, they are referring to them being snatchers or robbers, which they do in a couple of myths that surround them.


But let me tell you how they came about first. It’s said that the Harpies were born from the sea god Thaumas and the oceanid Electra, but some stories say that they were fathered by Poseidon, who knows at this point honestly. Also, due to their wind spirit thing going on, they were also considered the children of the wind, which was the god Aeolus, who had four gods serving below him as the Anemoi, each set to a cardinal direction each. The most famous one of these is Zephyrus, but that’s another story for another time - but basically no one could actually tell which of the five gods involved here were the fathers.


In some Greek myths, there is the rule of three and usually they are all named. There are some monsters, much like the three Gorgon sisters, who are apparently the only ones who existed of their kind. Well, with Harpies - it’s almost the same. The original three Harpy sisters were Aello, Ocypete and Celaeno. They represented the stormy night winds - with Aello meaning storm swift, Ocypete meaning swift wing and Celaeno meaning the dark. These sisters terrorised people around their abode, and anyone who really deserved punishment.


They lived on the island of Strofades, which is a tiny island just off the west coast of Greece, but they also lived in the Underworld. I did mention this earlier and I mentioned punishment, but now we get to go proper into it. 


The Harpies were basically delivery girls - horrifying, terrifying kidnappers from the sky, if you can see where I’m going with this. They were known as the hounds of Zeus and they were sent by the gods to retrieve evil doers and bring them to the Underworld for the deities known as the Erinyes, or the Furies. 


The Erinyes, which we’ll cover in another episode as they’re possibly my favourite deities other than the fates from Greek mythos - are the three sisters (again with the threes) who embody the chthonic ideas of vengeance. They are the keepers of Tartarus, torturing and I mean that literally, the most evil souls for all eternity. The Harpies were gifted to them by Zeus to carry the evil dead straight into Tartarus and make their journey as hellish as possible, before they landed in the laps of these three horrifying crones. I won’t go too into the Furies, as they’re too good to not do an episode on - but you get the jist, they’re the torturers of Greek hell and the harpies work for them.


Now alongside this, the most famous mention of Harpies is not within Tartarus with the Erinyes - but with Jason and the trip on the Argo. 


However, this story isn’t about Jason - but it includes him. Just to make things even more confusing, there are actually two versions of this myth too - so hold on. 


In the first version, it’s that Zeus decided to give the gift of prophecy to King Phineus of Thrace - and with this, being an idiot, he looked into the future of the Gods, revealing their plan with mankind. Zeus found this out and punished him by blinding the King and dumping him with the Harpies. 


Phineus would score the island with his eyeless body, trying to find any food with his hands, where there was an absolute abundance on the island - but the Harpies would come and steal it away at the last chance they could. 


The other telling of this myth is that there was no gift, but Phineus’ wife falsely accused his two sons of rape, and so Phineus blinded them. Zeus doesn’t deal too well with dads blinding their kids, so for crime against his sons, Zeus blinded Phineus and plonked him with the Harpies in Thrace. That’s the only difference in the two tellings really. 


Then a few years later, Jason turns up on the Argo with his pals - and chases the Harpies off, freeing Phineus from his eternal hunger and torment. In return, Phineus told Jason and his crew how to steer through the Symplegades rocks, which were a pair of rocks on the Bosphorus strait that would smash together like a venus fly trap when a ship went through. Phineus told Jason that the way to get through was to measure how quickly they would shut, testing with a dove and then rowing to the same speed. Both the bird and the ship only lost their tail feathers and stern - and the Symplegades moved no more. Fun story right? 


The Harpies flew back to their cave in Crete, and were only ever mentioned in one other myth - which is quite quick. It’s that the Trojans decided to settle on the Strofades, and when they went to feast, the harpies stole their food and Celaeno tells them that they would be so hungry, they would eat their tables before they reach the end of their journey, and the Trojans sailed away in fear.


Lastly, we can look to literature for great use of Harpies. We see them in Dante’s Inferno, where they reside in the seventh ring of hell - torturing those who commited suicide. Here’s an extract because it’s so good;


Here the repellent harpies make their nests,

Who drove the Trojans from the Strophades

With dire announcements of the coming woe.

They have broad wings, with razor sharp talons and a human neck and face,

Clawed feet and swollen, feathered bellies; they caw

Their lamentations in the eerie trees.


And Shakespeare uses Harpies in two of his plays - most famously The Tempest, when the sprite Ariel disguises themself as a harpy to scare the drunkards from the beach. Another is Much Ado About Nothing, which is my favourite Shakespeare play and is the first use of Harpy as an offensive term. 


The character Benedick sees his ex-girlfriend Beatrice, approaching and shouts that he would do an assortment of arduous tasks "rather than hold three words conference with this harpy!” This insult towards women has generally stuck around til the 21st century unfortunately, indicating that they are nasty or shrill, which isn’t particularly nice. 


The only real life comparison to Harpies could potentially be a large eagle - which are large enough to pick up people. However, the chances of that are pretty slim. There were eagles in Greece though - and the Harpy eagle was named after them when they were officially discovered in 1758. They are gorgeous birds, and they were named specifically after the Harpies from Greek myth. They can have a wingspan up to 7 and a half feet, which is massive, so they could totally eat a person let alone probably carry one. 


Going off on a tiny tangent, I know we’ve covered a lot of half people, half animal monsters - but there are just so many of them! We’re not even halfway done with these mixed up monsters in any mythology, so I hope this isn’t too disinteresting. Harpies are one of my favourites in the mix up department, so hey I enjoyed this at least.


CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 


Now onto cultural significance for this week - we do have quite a lot thankfully! 


For art - you can see these in actually a load of paintings, such as Harpies in the Infernal Wood by Gustave Dore from 1861, Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Harpy from 1642, Phineus and the Borads by Bernard Picart from 1731, Landscape with the Expulsion of the Harpies by Paolo Fiammingo from 1590, The Persecution of the Harpies by Erasmus Quellinus from 1636 and lastly Edvard Munch’s 1894 painting, Harpy. There’s actually a load here, but they’re mostly classic paintings that are actually quite famous. One of them is in the National Gallery here in London, so that’s a fun fact I didn’t know. 


For movies, we’re a bit more limited I’m afraid; we have films such as Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Spirited Away, Hercules, The Last Unicorn and My Little Pony: The Movie. 


For TV, in contrast - we have loads! We have Yu-Gi-Oh!, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fairy Tail, One Piece, Monster Museum, The Adventures of Sinbad, Charmed, Hercules: The Animated Series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, Jason and the Argonauts, Aladdin: The Series, Ducktales, Hellboy, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Ultraman Dyna, Power Rangers Mystic Force and The Owl House. 


STEPHEN FRY - FANTASTIC BEASTS: A HISTORY


Now into video games where it’s the same - chock full of stuff! Such as Dragons Dogma, Gothic, EverQuest, Hades, Breath of Fire 2, Dark Souls, Castlevania, Elder Scrolls, God of War, Golden Sun, Persona 4, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, SMITE, Pokemon, Pyre, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Warcraft, Miitopia, Guild Wars, Terraria, Total War, The Witcher 2 & 3 and Titan Quest.


My book recommendation this week is Greek Myths: Meet the heroes, gods and monsters of Ancient Greece by our much recommended Jean Menzies - it’s a great book, her series on mythology is highly recommended by me. Another one from me is a book just called Greek Mythology by Katerina Servi, which I picked up when I went on a pilgrimage to Athens in 2019 at the History Museum. If it’s sold there, it says it’s really worth a read. I read it on Acropolis Hill overlooking the Parthenon, it was such a good experience. 


DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 


Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? Probably not I’m afraid, I really don’t think that there are a bunch of half-woman, half-birds flying about at the moment. The only thing I can possibly link this to is misidentification, but Harpy Eagles were not discovered or named until after these myths existed.


As much as I love the idea of these fierce ladies being the instruments of the Furies' punishments, as I’m a massive fan of the Erinyes - and all they stand for to be honest, I think they’re really cool characters. The idea that they were gifted to them to just torture people is a pretty cool idea. 


Harpies are one of my more childhood adored monsters for me, I remember being obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh as a kid and Mai and her harpy card deck was my absolute favourite. She was super badass, and I think it’s really important to have badass female characters in kids media, and these Harpies were terrifyingly powerful, with their thorny whips and pet dragons. 


Also, as they’re all female - and it’s now such an insult to be called a Harpy, we should totally retake the word. I’m down for being called that - they’re so bloody cool and they took no prisoners. Let’s embrace it ladies!


OUTRO: 


I love a Greek monster, I do. Harpies are one of my favourite Greek monsters, I really love any that are half ladies, half something else though - I think they’re so much more interesting than normal ones. I always miss doing Greek ones whilst we’re not covering them - but hey, we can’t just do a Greek myth podcast, that would be unfair to all the other monsters that are just as interesting!


We’re taking a two week break from next week as it’s my birthday on the 16th, so I’ll be celebrating this and just taking a nice little break before our one year anniversary! Can you believe it!? When we come back though, we’re heading back over to Scandinavia for the fearsome Valkyries of Norse myth. Prepare for the most honourable battle on the 24th March!  


For now thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast, ya know if you feel like it.


Come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.


But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.





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