Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Calais.
The gallery
The Boreads Rescuing Phineus from the Harpies (Attic red-figure column-krater, side A)
The Leningrad Painter, c. 460 BC
On the principal face of this Attic red-figure column-krater, the winged Boreads Calais and Zetes — sons of Boreas the North Wind and Orithyia — sweep in from either side to drive the Harpies away from the blind seer Phineus, who sits at the centre as the snatching wind-spirits torment his table. Painted around 460 BC and attributed to the Leningrad Painter, the vase (41.5 cm high, found at Altamura) is among the earliest surviving depictions of this Argonautic episode, in which the brothers' gift of flight allows them to chase down the airborne Harpies. It is held in the Louvre's Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities (inv. G 364).
Calaïs and Zetes Delivering Phineus from the Harpies
Bernard Picart, early 18th century (artist 1673–1733)
This copper engraving by the French printmaker Bernard Picart (1673–1733), made to illustrate Ovid's Metamorphoses, renders the same rescue in the dynamic Baroque idiom. The winged brothers Calais and Zetes are shown in mid-flight, swords drawn, pursuing the fleeing Harpies through the air while the aged, blinded Phineus is freed from the monsters that had despoiled his food. As one of the two Boreads, Calais is depicted here in his defining heroic role — a winged Argonaut whose pursuit of the Harpies, according to several ancient sources, eventually cost him his life.
The Harpies Driven from the Table of King Phineus by Zetes and Calais
Unknown (after François Perrier), 17th century
A Metropolitan Museum print names both Boreads at Phineus' table: Calais and Zetes scatter the Harpies — the Argonautic rescue fixed as a titled engraving for collectors of the Metamorphoses cycle.
Calais and Zetes Led by Boreas and Oreithyia
Unknown, 17th–18th century
This Metropolitan Museum print presents the winged twins with their parents Boreas and Orithyia — Calais as wind-born Argonaut before the Harpy chase, already marked by the gift of flight.
The Persecution of the Harpies
Erasmus Quellinus II, c. 1630
Quellinus' Baroque canvas drives the Boreads through the air after the Harpies — Calais in the winged pursuit that defines his brief heroic career among the Argonauts.