"Apparently there are two types of harpy. One consists of wind spirits, with such names as Swiftfoot, Stormwind, and Swiftwing. They are ruthless personifications of the wind, but not nearly so unpleasent as the other type. These, with such names as Dark, are violently antagonistic to humans.
The harsh semi-human screams of a harpy as it swoops upon its prey, the thunder of its wings and the foul stench of its unpreened feathers, are signals that it is executing a sentence of the gods from which there is no escape."
--"Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were" by Michael Page & Robert Ingpen
"...they were agents of punishment who abducted people and tortured them on their way to Tartarus. They were vicious, cruel and violent."
--???
"Here the repellent harpies make their nests,
Who drove the Trojans from the Strophades
With dire announcements of the coming woe.
They have broad wings, a human neck and face,
Clawed feet and swollen, feathered bellies; they caw
Their lamentations in the eerie trees."
--Dante
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