Galaxy/The codex of Ocypete (Harpies)

Ocypete (Ancient Greek: Ὠκυπέτη, "swift wing") was one of the Harpies of Greek mythology, also called Ocypode or Ocythoe. Daughter of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra (and thus sister of Iris), she appears with Aello and Celaeno as a winged agent of divine punishment. In one pursuit by the Boreads she, though swiftest of the three, landed exhausted on a mid-ocean island and begged the gods for mercy.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Ocypete" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Family and names

In the usual Hesiodic genealogy the Harpies are daughters of the sea god Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, sisters of the rainbow-goddess Iris (and, in some lists, of Arke and Hydaspes). Ocypete's harpy-sisters are Aello (Podarge) and Celaeno. Alternate parentage makes them children of Typhoeus, of Pontus and Gaea, or of Poseidon.

II.Mythology

Harpies served the higher gods as punishers — snatching food, fouling banquets, and carrying off the guilty. Their most famous narrative is the torment of the blind seer Phineus until the winged Boreads drove them away.

In one telling of that chase Ocypete, though the swiftest of the trio, grew exhausted, landed on an island in mid-ocean, and begged the gods for mercy. Hesiod names Ocypete and Aello among the fair-locked, wind-swift maidens; later art and poetry increasingly cast the sisters as monstrous bird-women.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameOkypetē (Ὠκυπέτη)
Roman nameOcypete
Typecreature
Domainsswift-flier · snatching · winged torment
ParentageThaumas · Electra
SymbolsWings · Storm winds
EtymologyAncient Greek Ōkypétē (Ὠκυπέτη), "swift wing"; also Ocypode (Ὠκυπόδη, "swift foot") and Ocythoe (Ὠκυθόη, "swift runner").
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