Harpies.
Regarded by Homer and Hesiod as the personification of turbulent winds, the Harpies (Greek, Harpyiae, “snatchers”) were the daughters of the Titan Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, according to Hesiod, but their parentage varies with the sources. Named Aello, Ocypete, Podarge, and Celaeno, they were often conceived as ministers of divine vengeance and were known principally for carrying off people or objects in their sharp claws. They appear in the Odyssey as the storm winds that seize the daughters of Pandareos and deliver them to the Furies. They also figure in the myth of Phi-neus, whom they plague by stealing most of his food and defiling the rest. In thcAeneid, the Harpies make the famous prophecy that the Trojan wanderers will one day eat their tables. They are also described as denizens of Hades. The Harpy Podarge was said by Homer to have coupled with Zephyr, the god of the west wind, and borne Xanthus and Balius, Achilles’ divine horses; the horses of Castor and Pollux were also called offspring of the Harpies.
       Ancient depictions represented the Harpies as winged women; they later became monsters with the faces of women and bodies of birds.
      
      Classical Sources. Homer, Iliad 16.148—51, 19.400; Odyssey 20.61—78. Hesiod, Theogony 264-69. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.176—300. Virgil, Aeneid 3.209-52, 6.289. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 1.2.6, 1.9.21, 3.15.2. Hyginus, Fabulas 14,19.