What is the origin of the word harpy according to R. S. P. Beekes?
R. S. P. Beekes suggests a Pre-Greek origin for this term in his 2009 work The Etymological Dictionary of Greek.
Questions about Harpy
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Where did ancient writers say the harpies lived?
Their abode was described either as the islands called Strofades or a cave in Crete.
How were the harpies depicted in Homer's Odyssey compared to later Roman writers?
Homer placed them within his Odyssey poems around the 8th century BCE while Ovid described them as human-vultures in his Metamorphoses written in the early 1st century CE.
Who defeated the harpies during the journey of Jason and the Argonauts?
The Boreads sons of Boreas the North Wind succeeded in driving off the harpies.
When did Dante Alighieri include harpies in his Inferno?
Dante Alighieri envisaged tortured wood infested with harpies in Canto XIII of his Inferno written around 1320 CE.
Which city used the harpy as an early device in its coat-of-arms starting in 1243 CE?
The city of Nuremberg used the harpy as an early device in its coat-of-arms starting in 1243 CE.