Harpies’s Family Tree

About Harpies →

Family

• Electra(parent),Thaumas(parent),Iris(sibling)— Marriage

  The sea god Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra produced Iris, goddess of the rainbow, and the Harpies, winged storm spirits. Hesiod's Theogony names them as siblings born of sea and sky.

Enemy of

• Boreas

  The winged sons of Boreas, Zetes and Calais, chased the Harpies across the sky during the Argonauts' stop at Salmydessus. The pursuit ended when Iris intervened, promising the Harpies would no longer trouble Phineus.

• Phineus

  The Harpies tormented the blind seer Phineus at Salmydessus, snatching and defiling his food whenever he tried to eat. Zeus had sent them as punishment for Phineus revealing too much of the gods' plans to mortals.

Associated with

• Aeneas

  In Virgil's Aeneid, the Harpies attacked Aeneas and his men on the Strophades islands, fouling their food. The Harpy Celaeno delivered a prophecy that the Trojans would not found their city until hunger forced them to eat their tables.

• Argonauts

  The Argonauts drove the Harpies away from the blind seer Phineus at Salmydessus. The Boreads, Zetes and Calais, chased the creatures across the sky until Iris intervened.

• Erinyes

  In Odyssey 20, the Harpies snatched the orphaned daughters of Pandareus and delivered them to the Erinyes as handmaidens, consigning the girls to torment instead of the blessed marriages the gods had prepared for them.

• Iris

  Iris, sister of the Harpies through their shared parents Thaumas and Electra, intervened to halt the Boreads' pursuit. She swore an oath that the Harpies would leave Phineus in peace, saving her sisters from destruction.

• Voyage of the Argo

  The Harpies were tormenting the seer Phineus when the Argonauts arrived during the Voyage of the Argo. Zetes and Calais, the winged Boreads, chased the Harpies away.

• Zephyrus

  The Harpies are connected to Zephyrus through Podarge, who mated with the west wind while grazing in a meadow by the river Ocean. From their union came the immortal horses Xanthus and Balius, who drew Achilles's chariot at Troy.

• Zeus

  Zeus dispatched the Harpies as his agents of punishment, earning them the epithet 'Hounds of Zeus.' They served as instruments of divine retribution, most notably tormenting the seer Phineus on Zeus's orders.