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Harpies

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Swift, predatory winged spirits with women's faces and birds' bodies who snatch people and food, serving as agents of divine vengeance. They tormented the blind prophet Phineus.

Detailed Definition
The Harpies—Aello, Ocypete, and Celaeno—were monstrous birds with women’s faces who tormented King Phineus by stealing and fouling his food. They appear in the Argonautica as obstacles to be overcome. In poetry, they symbolize sudden loss, divine retribution, and the intrusion of chaos into order.
Example
Example in poetry:
The Harpies torment Phineus by defiling his food in Apollonius’s Argonautica; In Virgil’s Aeneid, they attack the Trojans in the Strophades; Ovid describes them as winged monsters with human faces in Metamorphoses; Dante places Harpies in Inferno XIII among suicides; Medieval bestiaries cite Harpies as symbols of greed; Modern poetry uses Harpies to represent invasive forces or trauma.
Additional Notes
Harpies, winged monsters with women’s faces, snatch food and torment evildoers (e.g., Phineus in the Argonautica); their name means “snatchers”—they embody divine retribution and pollution—useful in poetry depicting psychological haunting, famine, or moral decay; later softened in some traditions as wind spirits.
Also Known As
Snatchers of Souls Wind Spirits Hounds of Zeus
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