Stymphalic birds

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Heracles kills the stymphalic birds with his slingshot
Attic vase, ~ 540 BC BC
British Museum , London
Heracles kills the stymphalic birds with an arch
Roman mosaic from Llíria , Valencia , Spain , first half of the 3rd century BC BC
National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid

The Stymphalian birds also Stymphaliden called, were kranich large birds of Greek mythology . They lived by Lake Stymphalos in Arcadia and were a plague because they shot their iron feathers like arrows at people and destroyed the harvest. The hero Heracles drove them out or killed most of them.

Sagas versions

The Stymphalian birds had their nesting places in the reeds of Lake Stymphalos. This standing body of water, known since time immemorial (lake without surface drainage and with varying water surface) is still today a nesting and resting place for endemic and migratory birds. The lake is located in a sparsely populated mountain landscape at an altitude of approx. 600 m, which was counted as part of Arcadia.

The stymphalic birds had iron beaks, claws and wings and could even penetrate the armor of the warriors. In addition, they could shoot their metal feathers like arrows at their victims. The stymphalids raged among the people and animals of Arcadia.

Heracles was given the task of driving the birds away by Eurystheus as part of the Twelve Labor . But since their number was extraordinarily large, he received large metal rattles from Athena , which Hephaestus had made. The hero was able to scare away the apparently frightened birds by the noise the hero made from the constant clashing of the rattles. According to another variant of the myth, he only scared them away with the noise of the rattling and then killed them with his arrows. To protect himself from their iron feather arrows, he used the two rattles as shields. After killing most of the birds, the rest fled.

According to the Argonauts legend , the surviving birds lived on the island of Aretias or Ares island in the Pontus after their expulsion by Heracles . The Argonauts were attacked by them on their way to Colchis when they wanted to land on the island, but were able to drive away the birds by means of the loud noise caused by the clash of their shields.

According to Mnaseas , the stymphalids were not birds, but daughters of the stymphalos and the ornis. On the gable of the Temple of Artemis in Stymphalos, however, they were depicted as birds, and behind the temple there were statues of virgins with bird feet. The classical philologist Otto Gruppe thought the Stymphalids were storm demons.

The rattles of Athena are never depicted in Greek visual art. Instead, Herakles is always shown at the moment in which he startled birds with a slingshot or bow and bow shoots.

Constellation

It is believed that the constellations swan , vulture (today lyre ) and eagle represent the stymphalids and together belong to the Heracles family.

swell

literature

Web links

Commons : Stymphalic Birds  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 8, 22, 4; Library of Apollodor 2, 92 f .; among others
  2. ^ Greece (Alt-G .: waters, coastal structure) . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 7, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 674.
  3. ^ Hyginus , Genealogiae 30, 6.
  4. ↑ According to the library of Apollodorus (2, 92), however, the Stymphalids were just ordinary birds that had fled to Lake Stymphalia for fear of wolves.
  5. ↑ Libraries of Apollodor 2, 93; According to another version of the legend, Herakles made the rattles himself (as Hellanikos in the Scholion zu Apollonios von Rhodos, Argonautika 2, 1055 and Diodor, Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 4, 13, 2).
  6. ↑ Peisandros of Kameiros at Pausanias, Description of Greece 8, 22, 4; Diodor, Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 4, 13, 2; among others
  7. ↑ Libraries of Apollodor 2, 93; Quintus of Smyrna , Posthomerica 6, 227 ff .; among others
  8. ↑ Stymphalic Birds. In: bamberga.de. Retrieved March 22, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2, 1031 ff.
  10. ↑ Scholion to Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautika 2, 1052.
  11. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 8, 22, 7.
  12. ^ Otto group: Herakles . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume III, Stuttgart 1918, col. 910-1121 (here: col. 1044).
  13. ↑ Object catalog. Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, accessed on March 22, 2016 .