Harpy

The Harpies were winged monsters of the Greek world, beings with the heads of hideous, deformed women and the bodies of bats or birds. They roamed the skies in large flocks and were among the servants of Ares, the God of War, and it was they who once carried his gift, the Blades of Chaos, down to Kratos.

Servants of Ares#

The Harpies were infamous as the servants of Ares. It was a flock of them that bore his gift, the Blades of Chaos, down from the heavens and bound them to Kratos at the god's command. They continued to serve in his army for years afterward. When Kratos came at last to Pandora's Temple in his quest to slay Ares, it was the Harpies who spotted him and raised the alarm, so that the god knew at once that the Spartan had entered his domain. Other flocks served lesser masters, among them the Body Burner, for whom they gathered up the corpses of those who had perished in the temple and carried them to his pyre.

In the older tales the Harpies were known as snatchers, creatures that descended to steal food and carry off the helpless. The hungry king Phineus of Thrace was tormented by them until the heroes who sailed with the Argonauts took pity on him and drove the monsters away.

The many breeds#

The Harpies were not one creature but many kinds, scattered across the living world and the realms of the dead. The smallest were the Harplings, little bird-like things that swarmed in flocks, and their fiercer cousins the Cursed Harplings, found in the depths of Asphodel and the Temple of Persephone. Larger and more dangerous were the Harpy Queens, beasts strong enough that even Kratos could lay hold of them and ride upon their backs across great chasms before tearing them apart.

Fire haunted some of the breed: the Fire Harpies, wreathed in flame as they dove from above, and the Hades Harpies of the Underworld, whose bodies burned as they hunted the Path of Hades and the heights of the Phoenix Chamber. In the cold places, upon the Mounts of Aroania, dwelt the Harpy Widows, beasts of ice whose freezing breath could lock a warrior in place. The Cursed Harpies, gray and leathery, haunted the depths of Tartarus and the skies above the Island of Creation. In the last days of the Greek world the Harpies still flew in great numbers, loosed to defend the gods of Olympus against the warrior who had risen to bring them down.