Mythic Creature: Harpy, Pegasus, Kraken

Mythological Creature

Harpy

Shared By: High Priestess Lady Gloriana

The Harpies were MYTHICAL MONSTERS in GREEK MYTHOLOGY that had the form of a bird with a human female face; often agents of punishment they abducted people and tortured them on their way to HADES’ domain, employed by the God as instruments for the punishment of the guilty.

They stole food from their victims and would carry evildoers to Erinnyes of the Furies (female goddesses of vengeance and retribution). Their name means snatchers and is thus very appropriate for the acts they carried out. Known as the hounds of ZEUS, they were dispatched by the God to snatch away people and things from the earth; sudden and mysterious disappearances were often attributed to them. They initially were classified as wind spirits, seen as the personifications of destructive winds. Hesiod mentioned two harpies by name; Aello (storm swift) and Ocypete (swift wing) and Virgil called another, Celaeno (darkness).

In the Homeric poems, the Harpies are nothing but personified storm winds, and he only named Podarge (felt foot) who was married to the West Wind Zephyrus and gave birth to the two horses of Achilles; Xanthus and Balius.

Hesiod described them as lovely fair locked and winger maidens, the daughters of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, who surpassed winds and birds in the speed of flight. Grecian pottery depicted the harpies as beautiful women with wings.

However, as early as Aeschylus, in the Eumenides, Harpies are described as ugly creatures with wings and later writers would carry these characteristics so far as to represent them as disgusting, cruel and terrifying monsters that were always ravenously hungry. Sometimes they were thought to be cousins of the GORGONS, three sisters with hair made of horrible venomous snakes and a stone wielding stare, Medusa is the most famous of the three sisters.

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They appear as evil forces in Ovid’s story of King Phineus of Thrace, whom Zeus gave the gift of prophecy. Phineus used this gift against the GODS, uncovering their secret plans and was thus punished by an angry Zeus, sentenced to an island, blind and with a buffet of food he could not eat because the Harpies would steal all the food before he was able to indulge and satisfy his hunger.

Years later Phineus was rescued by his fate by Jason and the Argonauts, and the winged Boreades drove the Harpies away. The Boreades were twin winged brothers named Calais and Zetes, sons of Boreas and Oreithyia.

The goddess Iris commanded that they turn back and not harm the wind-spirits thus the ‘dogs of great Zeus,’ the Harpies, escaped to their cave in Minoan Crete leaving their past residence of the islands called Strophades. In exchange, the exiled King told Jason how to pass the Symplegades Rocks. In this form the Harpies acted as agents of punishment; vicious, cruel and violent.

According to the story of the daughters of Pandareus, the Gods killed King Pandareus and his wife, after the King stole a bronze dog from Zeus. His daughters Cleodora and MEROPE were spared and raised by several of the Greek goddesses on Mount Olympus, particularly APHRODITE. When the girls reached an age to be married off, APHRODITE went to seek permission from Zeus for the marriages and while she was gone the Harpies came and took the daughters to become servants of the Furies.

The Harpies, like many characters in Greek mythology, evolved over time and different tales, beginning as wind spirits then personified as winged woman and eventually into the monstrous creatures we most recognise today.

Other Interesting Facts:

• • Harpies remained vivid mythical beasts throughout the Middle Ages, in Dante’s

Inferno Harpies infest a tortured wood in the seventh ring of Hell where the suicides have their punishment • • Roman and Byzantine writers detailed their ugliness and monstrous qualities. • • In the Aeneid, AENEAS encountered the Harpies on the Strophades as they made off with the feast the Trojans were setting, Celaeno cursed them, and the Trojans fled in fear of the mythical beasts • • In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ by

Shakespeare, the term Harpy is used metaphorically to refer to a nasty or annoying woman, and though not often used in modern vernacular it is understood that this is what the term currently describes https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/myths/ harpies/

Mythological Creature

Pegasus

Shared By: High Priestess Lady Gloriana

In Greek mythology, Pegasus was an immortal winged horse, one of the two children of Poseidon and Medusa. Along with his brother, the golden-sworded Chrysaor, Pegasus sprang forth most miraculously from his pregnant mother’s neck after Perseus had beheaded her. He belonged to the Greek hero Bellerophon for some time, before being stabled by Zeus and tasked with drawing the chariot of his thunderbolts.

Pegasus and Water Springs Hesiod says that Pegasus’ name originates in the Greek word for springs, pegae, since he was supposedly born near the springs of Ocean. But he was also associated with waters due to an extraordinary trait of his he had inherited from his father. Namely, just like Poseidon, Pegasus was capable of creating water streams wherever he’d struck his hoof. At least two famous springs in Greece, both named Hippocrene (“Horse Spring”), were widely believed to have been issued forth by Pegasus’ hoof. The more famous one of the two was located on Mount Helicon, the sacred abode of the Muses; its waters, when drunk, enthused poets with inspiration and creativeness.

Pegasus and Bellerophon For a brief period of time, Pegasus belonged to a mortal, Bellerophon, the celebrated hero and slayer of monsters.

The Taming of Pegasus Notoriously wild and free-roaming, Pegasus was finally tamed by one of the greatest Greek heroes, Bellerophon. But he didn’t do it by himself: he had a lot of help from Athena. According to Pindar, one of the most celebrated Ancient Greek poets, the goddess gifted him with a charmed golden bridle, which Bellerophon used to capture Pegasus when the stallion was drinking water at the Pierian spring, another water source associated with Pegasus and the Muses.

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Adventures Riding on Pegasus, Bellerophon was capable of overcoming the Amazons, the fire-breathing Chimaera, and the warlike Solymi. In addition, Pegasus was the means through which Bellerophon exacted his revenge on Jobates’ wife, Stheneboea, who testified falsely against Bellerophon after he had rejected her advances.

According to some, afterward Bellerophon offered her a ride on Pegasus, which she gladly accepted; however, as they were flying over the sea, the winged stallion flung her down to its depths.

The Death of Bellerophon Little did Bellerophon knew at the time that he would meet a similar fate. After his numerous victories against all kinds of opponents, Bellerophon started believing that the mortals aren’t worthy of his presence and that he deserves to live among the gods on Mount Olympus.

So, he mounted his faithful horse and started his faithful journey upward. Zeus, angered by Bellerophon’s hubris, soon sent a gadfly which stung Pegasus bad enough that the winged horse threw his rider down to earth and to his death.

Pegasus in Heavens After some time, the riderless Pegasus did reach Olympus. Zeus stabled him with his other steeds and soon after tasked him with drawing his thunderbolt-carrying chariot. After years of service, Zeus awarded Pegasus with a constellation, which bears his name to this very day.

Pegasus Sources Hesiod documents Pegasus’ birth and the origin of his name in the early passages of his “Theogony.” You can read the story of Bellerophon and Pegasus in Pindar’s 13th Olympian Ode, in the thirty or so verses beginning with the 60th. As is often the case, you can find an informed summary of it in Apollodorus’ “Library.”

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/ Pegasus/pegasus.html

Mythological Creature

Kraken

The Kraken is perhaps the largest monster ever imagined by mankind. In Nordic folklore, it was said to haunt the seas from Norway through Iceland and all the way to Greenland.

The Kraken had a knack for harassing ships and many pseudoscientific reports (including official naval ones) said it would attack vessels with its strong arms. If this strategy failed, the beast would start swimming in circles around the ship, creating a fierce maelstrom to drag the vessel down.

Of course, to be worth its salt, a monster needs to have a taste for human flesh. Legends say that the Kraken could devour a ship’s entire crew at once. But despite its fearsome reputation, the monster could also bring benefits: it swam accompanied by huge schools of fish that cascaded down its back when it emerged from the water. Brave fishermen could thus risk going near the beast to secure a bounteous catch.

The history of the Kraken goes back to an account written in 1180 by King Sverre of Norway. As with many legends, the Kraken started with something real, based on sightings of a real animal, the giant squid. For the ancient navigators, the sea was treacherous and dangerous, hiding a horde of monsters in its inconceivable depths. Any encounter with an unknown animal could gain a mythological edge from sailors’ stories. After all, the tale grows in the telling.

Scientific legend The strength of the myth became so strong that the Kraken could still be found in Europe’s first modern scientific surveys of the natural world in the 18th century. Not even Carl Linnaeus – father of modern biological classification – could avoid it and he included the Kraken among the cephalopod mollusks in the first edition of his groundbreaking Systema Naturae (1735).

But when, in 1853, a giant cephalopod was found stranded on a Danish beach, Norwegian naturalist Japetus Steenstrup recovered the animal’s beak and used it to scientifically describe the giant squid, Architeuthis dux. And so what had become legend officially entered the annals of science, returning our image of the Kraken to the animal that originated the myths.

After 150 years of research into the giant squid that inhabits all the world’s oceans, there is still much debate as to whether they represent a single species or as many as 20. The largest Architeuthis recorded reaches 18 metres in length, including the very long pair of tentacles, but the

Shared By: High Priestess Lady Gloriana

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vast majority of specimens are much smaller. The giant squid’s eyes are the largest in the animal kingdom and are crucial in the dark depths it inhabits (up to 1,100 metres deep, perhaps reaching 2,000 metres).

Like some other squid species, Architeuthis has pockets in its muscles containing an ammonium solution that is less dense than sea water.

This allows the animal to float underwater, meaning that it can keep itself steady without actively swimming. The presence of unpalatable ammonium in their muscles is also probably the reason why giant squid have not yet been fished to near extinction.

Hunter or prey? For many years, scientists debated whether the giant squid was a swift and agile hunter like the powerful predator of legends or an ambush hunter. After decades of discussion, a welcome answer came in 2005 with the unprecedented film footage from Japanese researchers T. Kubodera and K. Mori.

They filmed a live Architeuthis in its natural habitat, 900m deep in the North Pacific, showing that it is in fact a fast and powerful swimmer, using its tentacles to capture prey. Despite its size and speed, Architeuthis has a predator: the sperm whale. The battles between these titans must be frequent, since it is common to find scars on whales’ skins left by the squids’ tentacles and arms, which have suckers lined with sharp chitinous tooth-like structures.

But Architeuthis doesn’t have the muscles in its tentacles to use them to constrict prey and it can never overcome a sperm whale in a “duel”. Its only option is to flee, covering its escape with the usual cephalopod ink cloud.

Although we now know it is not just a legend, the giant squid remains perhaps the most elusive large animal in the world, which has greatly contributed to its aura of mystery. Many people today are still surprised in learning that it really exists.

After all, even after so much scientific research, the Kraken is still alive in popular imagination thanks to films, books and computer games, even if it sometimes turns up in the wrong mythology, such as the 1981 (and 2010) ancient Greek epic Clash of the Titans. These representations have come to define it in the public mind: a beast lurking in sunken ships waiting for reckless divers.

https://theconversation.com/the-real-life-origins-ofthe-legendary-kraken-52058