Rowan & Pine: A Feminist Folklore & Mythology Podcast - September 27, 2024


Pine Cones： Harpies ｜ Rowan & Pine Shorts

Pine Cones： Ghost Ships ｜ Rowan & Pine Shorts Episode Thirty-Eight： Ravens & Crows - night crap

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

129.81

Word count

1,439

Sentence count

59

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Tonight, we journey deep into the ancient world where gods and monsters ruled the skies.
00:00:13.660 This episode is dedicated to some of the most terrifying creatures in myth, the harpies,
00:00:20.220 Zeus's hounds of the wind, feared by mortals and revered by gods.
00:00:30.000 picture yourself being caught at sea or walking alone in a quiet forest
00:00:37.540 when out of nowhere a fierce gust of wind slashes through the air
00:00:42.160 leaving behind nothing but a cold chill and an unsettling sense of loss
00:00:46.720 in ancient greece such sudden disappearances were not just a quirk of the weather
00:00:52.160 they were attributed to our featured creatures those vengeful spirits who were even feared by
00:00:57.900 the gods themselves. The harpies were no ordinary spirits. They were diamonds, agents of divine
00:01:07.860 punishment dispatched directly by Zeus. Their very name means to snatch, and they were notorious for
00:01:14.840 doing just that, abducting people, food, and even entire ships without a trace. Their presence was 0.70
00:01:21.780 always hidden, always violent, and their wrath was swift. From Homer to Virgil, the harpies
00:01:28.360 haunted the imaginations of the ancients, and it is not hard to see why. In an age where ships
00:01:35.220 disappeared without a trace and storms could strike without warning, the harpies became the
00:01:40.680 embodiment of fear. They were more than mere monsters. They were the violent winds, the sudden
00:01:46.740 storms that swept across the land taking with them everything in their path they were feared
00:01:52.820 and respected by the gods themselves and treated accordingly in jason and the argonauts one of the
00:02:04.180 most famous epic stories in ancient greek mythology jason the leader of the expedition was tasked
00:02:10.340 with finding the golden fleece to claim his rightful place as the king of Iolcus.
00:02:16.260 The fleece was a magical artifact that hung in a grove in the distant land of Colchis,
00:02:20.740 guarded by a fierce dragon. To obtain it, Jason needed the help of a group of the greatest heroes
00:02:26.900 of Greece. It was said that Zeus sent the harpies to plague King Phineas of Thrace,
00:02:33.300 a once powerful king who had fallen from grace. Phineas was a seer, guilty of revealing the
00:02:39.140 the secrets of the gods, and his punishment was cruel. Whenever food was laid before him,
00:02:44.620 the harpies would descend in a furious whirlwind, snatching it from his grasp and fouling whatever
00:02:49.900 scraps they left behind. Though the king was starving, trembling with hunger, he was unable
00:02:56.440 to eat even a morsel. Every time he reached for sustenance, the harpies were there, merciless,
00:03:02.900 foul-smelling creatures of nightmare who left him with nothing but the stench of decay.
00:03:09.640 Jason agreed to assist Phineas and two of the winged sons of Boreas, Boreas being the god of the north wind, to pursue the harpies.
00:03:18.340 Thanks to their ability to fly, they chased the harpies across the sky, driving them away.
00:03:25.980 According to some versions of the myth, the Boreads chased the harpies all the way to the Strophides Islands.
00:03:32.440 Just as the Borides were ready to strike the final blow, the goddess Iris intervened,
00:03:37.780 commanding the brothers to leave the harpies unharmed. 0.98
00:03:42.400 With the harpies gone, Phineas was finally able to eat, and as a reward, he revealed
00:03:47.860 to Jason and the Argonauts how to safely navigate through the deadly clashing rocks
00:03:52.020 on their journey to Culchus.
00:03:54.020 Even the gods recognized the harpies as powerful beings of the underworld, untouchable by mortal
00:03:59.620 hands.
00:04:01.720 The harpies didn't just exist in myth, they were deeply tied to the places they tormented.
00:04:09.340 Ancient sources claimed that the harpies lived, as in Jason's story, in Thrace, or perhaps
00:04:15.120 in a den on the island of Crete, or maybe they settled in the Strophides after the
00:04:20.360 Borides chased them, giving the islands their name, Strophides, meaning to turn, marking
00:04:25.840 the spot where their pursuit ended.
00:04:27.680 the harpies reach extended beyond greece in one tradition they were connected to a river
00:04:36.560 in the peloponnes named after one of their kind who fell into it while fleeing
00:04:41.460 some said the harpies even guarded the underworld in a more obscure version of the myth
00:04:47.800 they were equated with the hesperides protectors of the golden apples of hera's garden
00:04:52.800 their names varied from source to source adding to their mystery homer spoke of pottergee a swift
00:05:02.300 and deadly harpy whose name means fleetfoot hesiod mentioned two harpies aelo whose name
00:05:08.640 meant stormwind and ossipete the swift flyer but some said there were others apollodorus listed
00:05:20.160 names like Nicothoe and Aelopus. Then came Roman poet Virgil, who introduced us to Saliano,
00:05:28.380 whose name meant dark or stormy. Later, the myth evolved, and some claimed there were three harpies.
00:05:36.380 The names may change, but the stories remain chillingly consistent.
00:05:40.840 These were not creatures easily contained or controlled, and neither were their tails.
00:05:50.160 the harpies though often depicted as winged women were far from the graceful ethereal beings of
00:06:04.460 modern myth in the earliest stories they had faces of beautiful maidens but as time went on 0.54
00:06:11.160 their image darkened they became creatures of horror their faces twisted their bodies monstrous
00:06:17.880 virgil and his aeneid gives a chilling description of these winged fiends
00:06:24.840 monsters more fierce offended heaven never sent from hell's abyss for human punishment with virgin 0.89
00:06:31.560 faces but with wombs obscene foul punches with odor still and clean with claws for hands and 0.73
00:06:39.640 looks forever lean this description paints a picture of creatures not only foul in appearance 0.50
00:06:46.040 but deeply corrupted their bellies were distended their bodies filthy and their talons sharp these
00:06:53.080 weren't just beasts they were punishments sent from the gods themselves their very presence 0.80
00:06:58.600 brought ruin and decay the stark opposite of what young women are quote-unquote supposed to be
00:07:05.560 but not all sources describe them in such revolting detail
00:07:08.440 they are said to have been feathered with cocks heads wings and human arms with great claws 0.60
00:07:17.500 breasts bellies and female parts human even in this more restrained depiction the harpies were
00:07:23.760 still an unsettling mixture of bird and human a grotesque hybrid that defied natural order
00:07:29.340 their speed their terrifying swiftness was their most defining trait so quick they could snatch
00:07:36.020 people and objects away in an instant, leaving nothing but confusion in their wake.
00:07:42.600 When Aeneas and his men encountered the harpies, the creatures swooped down with their crooked
00:07:47.740 talons, repelling every blow. No weapon could touch them, and as they flew, they left behind
00:07:54.000 a foul, rotting stench. Even the bravest warriors were left uncertain, unsure if they were fighting
00:07:59.760 birds goddesses or something far worse these monsters were more than mere terrors of the sky
00:08:09.040 they were a warning to anger the gods to break divine law was to invite the harpies into your
00:08:15.040 life once they set their sights on you there was no escape they were relentless untouchable and
00:08:21.440 and utterly merciless.
00:08:33.060 For sailors of the ancient world, the harpies weren't just a bedtime story.
00:08:37.340 They were a living nightmare, a force of nature that could not be reasoned with.
00:08:42.940 Their presence marked the point at which the world of men ended,
00:08:46.660 and the world of the gods and monsters began.
00:08:49.740 They were explanations for the inexplicable.
00:08:52.780 A sudden disappearance? The Harpies. 0.96
00:08:55.720 A ship lost at sea with no wreckage to be found? The Harpies. 0.99
00:09:00.740 They embodied the fear of losing something or someone in an instant.
00:09:05.040 A fear that still resonates with people today.
00:09:08.380 The Harpies were the storm winds personified, quick, merciless, and inescapable.
00:09:13.760 They took without warning, and their presence polluted everything they touched.
00:09:17.700 As creatures of the underworld, they stood on the threshold between life and death,
00:09:23.640 gods and men, the known and the unknown.
00:09:27.600 Thank you for coming along on this journey into the cause of so much ancient terror.
00:09:32.640 We hope you have enjoyed Sea-Tember as much as we have.
00:09:36.020 Until next time. 0.99
00:09:38.040 Thanks for listening, and fuck ya folklore. 0.99
00:09:47.700 Thank you. 0.98
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