Editing Harpy (section)

===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>}}