In Greek and Roman mythology, a harpy is a hybrid creature, half human and half bird, often understood as a personification of storm winds. Harpies feature in the Homeric poems, and later Greek and Roman writers developed them into winged women who snatch food and torment their victims. The creature's dual nature, human above and bird below, places it among this atlas's broader family of part-human, part-animal hybrids.
Facts
Iconography
SymbolSourced to the subject's own accountA harpy is a half human, half bird creature, conventionally a bird's body and wings joined to a woman's head and face. 1 Attestation
HistoricitySourced to the subject's own accountLegendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 1 Connections
Associated With
Zeus, Deities In Greek mythology the Harpies act as agents of the gods, most famously sent to torment the seer Phineus by fouling his food.
Belongs to Tradition
Related To
Sources
1. Harpy (Wikipedia)
Introduction
a half-human and half-bird mythical creature
Lead section: historicity
In Greek and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, Ancient Greek: ἅρπυια, romanized: hárpyia, pronounced [hárpyːa]; Latin: harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird mythical creature, often believed to be a personification of storm winds.
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