Research source

GREEK FESTIVALS-- ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, 196 THESMOPHORIA, 197 DIONYSIA, 197 PANATHENAEA, 199 DAPHNEP

Date of account: Ancient material presented in a nineteenth-century survey
Source: Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome
Reference: Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome · selected passage 85
Rights: public_domain
Language: English retelling of Greek and Roman traditions
Translation: E. M. Berens
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

PHINEUS AND THE HARPIES.--They now proceeded towards Bithynia, where reigned the blind old prophet-king Phineus, son of Agenor

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

PHINEUS AND THE HARPIES.--They now proceeded towards Bithynia, where reigned the blind old prophet-king Phineus, son of Agenor. Phineus had been punished by the gods with premature old age and blindness for having abused the gift of prophecy. He was also tormented by the Harpies, who swooped down upon his food, which they either devoured or so defiled as to render it unfit to be eaten. This poor old man, trembling with the weakness of age, and faint with hunger, appeared before the Argonauts, and implored their assistance against his fiendish tormentors, whereupon Zetes and Calais, the winged sons of Boreas, recognizing in him the husband of their sister Cleopatra, affectionately embraced him, and promised to rescue him from his painful position.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

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