   in greek mythology and roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, ,of uncertain etymology; r. s. p. beekes has suggested a pre-greek origin (etymological dictionary of greek, brill, 2009, p. 139). harpyia, ; ) was a female monster in the form of a bird with a human face. they steal food from their victims while they are eating and carry evildoers (especially those who have killed their family) to the erinyes. they seem originally to have been wind spirits. their name means "snatchers".adrian room, who's who in classical mythology, p. 147 isbn 0-517-22256-6 homer wrote that a harpy was the mother of the two horses of achilles sired by the west wind zephyros.iliad xvi. 150. hesiod calls them two "lovely-haired" creatures, the daughters of thaumas and electra (not to be confused with electra, daughter of king agamemnon), who were sisters of the iris.hesiod, theogony, 265â267. pottery art depicting the harpies featured beautiful women with wings. harpies as ugly winged bird-women, e.g. in aeschylus' the eumenides (line 50) are a late development. roman and byzantine writers detailed their ugliness.virgil, aeneid iii. 216; ovid metamorphoses vii.4, fasti vi. 132; hyginus, fabula 14; johannes tzetzes, ad lycophron 653. ==mythology==   king phineus of thrace, had the gift of prophecy. zeus, angry that phineus gave away the gods' secret plan, punished him by blinding him and putting him on an island with a buffet of food which he could never eat because the harpies always arrived to steal the food out of his hands before he could satisfy his hunger, and befouled the remains of his food. this continued until the arrival of jason and the argonauts. the boreads, sons of boreas, the north wind, who also could fly, succeeded in driving off the harpies, but without killing any of them, following a request from iris, who promised that phineus would not be bothered by the harpies again. "the dogs of great zeus" returned to their "cave in minoan crete". thankful for their help, phineus told the argonauts how to pass the
Fairies Greek_legendary_creatures Greek_mythology Heraldic_beasts Human-headed_mythical_creatures Legendary_birds Mythological_birds_of_prey Mythological_human_hybrids Pejorative_terms_for_people