Editing Harpy (section)

==Descriptions==
Harpies were generally depicted as birds with the heads of maidens, faces pale with hunger and long claws on their hands. Roman and Byzantine writers detailed their ugliness.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' 3.216; [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]], [https://topostext.org/work/860#653 653]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 7.4; ''[[Fasti]]'' 6.132; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#14.3 14]</ref>{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}} Pottery art depicting the harpies featured beautiful women with wings. [[Ovid]] described them as human-[[vulture]]s.<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 7.4</ref>

===Hesiod===
To [[Hesiod]], they were imagined as fair-locked and winged maidens, who flew as fast as the wind:
{{blockquote|[T]he Harpyiai (Harpies) of the lovely hair, Okypete (Ocypete) and Aello, and these two in the speed of their wings keep pace with the blowing winds, or birds in flight, as they soar and swoop, high aloft.<ref name=":1" />}}

===Aeschylus===
Even as early as the time of [[Aeschylus]], harpies were thought to be ugly creatures with wings, and later writers carried their notions of the harpies so far as to represent them as most disgusting monsters. The [[Sibyl|Pythian priestess]] of [[Apollo]] compares the appearance of the [[Erinyes]], chthonic goddesses of vengeance, with those of harpies in the following lines of [[Oresteia|The Eumenides]]:

{{blockquote|Before this man an extraordinary band of women [i.e. the Erinyes] slept, seated on thrones. No! Not women, but rather Gorgons I call them; and yet I cannot compare them to forms of Gorgons either. Once before I saw some creatures in a painting [i.e. harpies], carrying off the feast of [[Phineus]]; but these [i.e. the Erinyes] 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.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''Eumenides'' [http://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=14 50] {{PD-notice}}</ref>}}

===Virgil===
{{blockquote|Bird-bodied, girl-faced things they (Harpies) are; abominable their droppings, their hands are talons, their faces haggard with hunger insatiable.<ref>Virgil, ''Aeneid'' 3.216 {{PD-notice}}</ref>}}

===Hyginus===
{{blockquote|They are said to have been feathered, with cocks' heads, wings, and human arms, with great claws; breasts, bellies, and female parts human.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#14.3 14] {{PD-notice}}</ref>}}