Editing Argonauts (section)

=== Phineus and the Harpies ===
[[File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Persecution of the Harpies, 1636.jpg|thumb|250px|''The Persecution of the Harpies'' (1636/1637)
by [[Rubens]]]]
Thence, they put to sea and came to land at [[Salmydessus]] in Thrace, where Phineus dwelt. The latter was said to be the son of [[Agenor (mythology)|Agenor]] or of [[Poseidon]], and a seer who was bestowed by Apollo with the gift of prophecy. Phineus had lost the sight of both eyes because of the following reasons, (1) blinded by Zeus because he revealed the deliberations of the gods and foretold the future to men, (2) by Boreas and the Argonauts because he blinded his own two sons by Cleopatra at the instigation of their stepmother; or (3) by Poseidon, because he revealed to the children of Phrixus how they could sail from Colchis to Greece. Zeus then set over him the Harpies, who are called the hounds of Zeus. These were winged female creatures, and when a table was laid for Phineus, they flew down from the sky and snatched up most of the victuals from his lips, and what little they left stank so that nobody could touch it.

[[File:Harpies and a male figurine, ivory relief, 570 BC, AM Delphi, 060079.jpg|thumb|250px|Fragments of an ivory relief (570 BC) depicting the Harpies and a male figure, likely an Argonaut (Archaeological Museum of Delphi)]]
When the Argonauts would have consulted him about the voyage, he said that he would advise them about it if they would free him from the punishment. So the Argonauts laid a table of viands beside him, and the Harpies with a shriek suddenly pounced down and snatched away the food. When Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, saw that, they drew their swords and, having wings on head and feet, pursued them through the air. Now it was fated that the Harpies should perish by the sons of Boreas, and that the sons of Boreas should die when they could not catch up a fugitive. So the Harpies were pursued and one of them fell into the river Tigres in Peloponnese, the river that is now called Harpys after her; some call her Nicothoe, but others Aellopus. But the other, named Ocypete or, according to others, Ocythoe (but Hesiod calls her Ocypode) fled by the Propontis till she came to the [[Echinadian Islands]], which are now called Strophades after her; for when she came to them she turned (estraphe) and being at the shore fell for very weariness with her pursuer. But Apollonius in the Argonautica says that the Harpies were pursued to the Strophades Islands and suffered no harm, having sworn an oath that they would wrong Phineus no more. Eventually, the Argonauts freed Phineus from the punishment.<ref>Apollodorus, 1.9.21; Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#19 19]</ref>