founded with this
divinity.

* * * * *

MINOR DIVINITIES.

THE HARPIES.

[Illustration]

The Harpies, who, like the Furies, were employed by the gods as instruments
for the punishment of the guilty, were three female divinities, daughters
of Thaumas and Electra, called Aello, Ocypete, and Celaeno.

They were represented with the head of a fair-haired maiden and the body of
a vulture, and were perpetually devoured by the pangs of insatiable hunger,
which caused them to torment their victims by robbing them of their food;
this they either devoured with great {138} gluttony, or defiled in such a
manner as to render it unfit to be eaten.

Their wonderfully rapid flight far surpassed that of birds, or even of the
winds themselves. If any mortal suddenly and unaccountably disappeared, the
Harpies were believed to have carried him off. Thus they were supposed to
have borne away the daughters of King Pandareos to act as servants to the
Erinyes.

The Harpies would appear to be personifications of sudden tempests, which,
with ruthless violence, sweep over whole districts, carrying off or
injuring all before them.

ERINYES, EUMENIDES (FURIAE, DIRAE).

The Erinyes or Furies were female divinities who personified the torturing
pangs of an evil conscience, and the remorse which inevitably follows
wrong-doing.

Their names were Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, and their origin was
variously accounted for. According to Hesiod, they sprang from the blood of
Uranus, when wounded by Cronus, and were hence supposed to be the
embodiment of all the terrible imprecations, which the defeated deity
called down upon the head of his rebellious son. According to other
accounts they were the daughters of Night.

Their place of abode was the lower world, where they were employed by Aides
and Persephone to chastise and torment those shades who, during their
earthly career, had committed crimes, and had not been reconciled to the
gods before descending to Hades.

But their sphere of action was not confined to the realm of shades, for
they appeared upon earth as the avenging deities who relentlessly pursued
and punished murderers, perjurers, those who had failed in duty to their
parents, in hospitality to strangers, or in the respect due to old age.
Nothing escaped the piercing glance of these terrible divinities, from whom
flight was unavailing, for no corner of the earth was so remote as {139} to
be bey