HARPY, a fabulous creature in Greek mythology, considered as a minister of the vengeance of the gods. Various accounts are given of the the numbers, and parentage of the harpies. Homer mentions but one, Hesiod enumerates two—A6110 and Okypete. daughters of Thaumas by the Oceanid Electra, fair-haired and winged maidens, very swift of flight. Three are sometimes recognized by later writers. who call them van misty daughters of Poseidon or of Typhon, and describe them as hideous monsters with wings, of fierce and loathsome aspect, with their faces pale with hunger. living. in an atmosphere of filth- and and contaminating everyiliinig:Itflitt.:Likey approached. , The most celebrated tradition regarding the harpies is connected with the blind Phinens, -,vhose meals they carried off as soon its they were spread for him; a plague front which he was delivered by the Argonauts, on his engaging to join in their quest. The Boreads Zetes and Calais attacked the harpies, but spared their lives OD their pro:nising to cease from molesting Phineus.—A harpy in heraldry is represented as a vulture, with the
head and breast of a woman.
The name harpy has also been given in modern times to some of the falconigw, as the marsh harrier (see HAnntint) of Europe, and the harpy or harpy eagle of South America (harpyia destructor or th•asaetus Itarnia), an inhabitant of the great tropical forests, where it preys chiefly on quadrupeds and to a large extent on sloths and young deer. Of all birds it has the most terrific beak and talons. It is larger than the com mon eagle; is short-winged and short-legged; the upper mandible greatly hooked; the feathers of the head capable of being erected into a great ruff and crest. It has not so elegant a form as thb true eagles, but is probably equal to any of them in strength and courage. When adult, it is generally of a blackish slate color, with gray head, and white breast and belly. It makes its nest in trees.