Are Harpies Good Or HORRIBLE EVIL BIRD MONSTERS!? - Castle Lore, Creatures of Myth

ah so you're interested in women with wings uh well after i tell you a story you might want to rethink that no no don't worry we don't shame anyone's interests here but grab a drink grab a seat i've got a story for you [Music] welcome back wayward children to my humble hovel let's get you back in touch with your roots shall we today we have a special request from a dear friend of mine named kill shot kitty she's a regular patron of the tavern she helps me out with many projects and i'd appreciate you checking out her links down in the kilt section below she has a deep-seated and horrendous hatred for harpies so she's asked me to spell out the history for harpies for all of you so that we can determine collectively whether or not her arduous hate for these creatures and therefore ours would be justified or if they're just cuddly little sparrow ladies who are really in need of our love and our help now that being said if you have not already joined the clan i bid the do so by engaging the subscribe button immortal combat you'll know you've won when the blood drains from its body that becomes a deathly grey and as a bonus you can ring the victory bell right next to it to always be notified when i upload a video and also to let all know of your victory and your joining of the black dragon clan now that being said let us get into the stories and histories of the harpy now going back to the oldest mythologies there are yokai in asian territories that have women's faces and bird-like bodies there are several of them so we're not going to go into them specifically most of them are evil most of them are demons most of them either kidnap children or cause horrendous storms in the mountains or out at sea and as we move into the more eurocentric mythologies which is more my area of comfort we have quite a few examples of ancient women with the features of a bird now there are hag women and they are typically referred to as dark hags or black hags something along that line as they usually are described as having the feathers of a raven or a crow now they are always associated with death the loss of life usually the death of young children toddlers and infants in the night in the same way that egyptians equated cats to stealing the souls of children in the night these uh black birds would sometimes be found sitting on the outsides of windows of children who had just recently passed now this is all conjecture and they're all old folk tales so there's no way of telling how true they actually are whereas with the cat thing that was because they would sit on the chest of kids and lick the milk off of their face and smother them which is just today's tragic but there's no folklore there that's just cats being as they do tend to be now that being said probably the most famous women with bird-like tendencies now i know you may be thinking castle clearly it's angels angels are depicted as women with the wings of birds and i hate to break it too friend no they are not never once anywhere in the bible nor anywhere in artists depictions of what they are described as in the bible are they ever described as women with wings no no no what we are talking about is one could say the angels of death of north's mythology the valkyr or the valkyrie the valor seekers those who hand pick the einherjar from the battlefields for odin now in our family's mythology they also serve the morrigan not the morrigan as in a singular woman the morrigan or more goo who is a collective of goddesses three sisters in some mythologies just partners in crime and others but the valkyrie are beautiful women typically with blonde or red flowing hair and pale skin with wings of brown black gold or white now within our family's mythology the color of the wings also refers to the milital rank of them within odin's private fighting force but that's not main line myth and if that's something that we're to discuss it would have to be in a separate video and if you'd like that you can always let me know in the lower kilt section down below getting down close to the socks that's where you leave comments now while the valkyrie are typically seen as heroic warrior women what we get from ancient writings tells us that that probably wasn't how ancient warriors saw them they were probably objects of terror because they are the choosers of the slain not the guardians of the slain not the guiders of the slain guiders of the slain where did that come from not the overseers of the slain know they are the choosers of the slain and there are many myths many sagas as a matter of fact the sago of hakkon the great shows him being upset with the valkyries who came and harvested his soul because he had prayed to odin for victory but he died and the valkyries respond to him that he did win he struck fear into the hearts of his enemies and they run away screaming and that he should be grateful that his legend will live on in perpetuity and to basically stop being such a whiny little bastard now most warriors probably looked at the valkyries the valker as being a terrifying prospect for if odin was overwatching the battlefield it meant that very likely the greatest warriors were set to find their way into odin's battle hall that day and if odin was watching if there were clouds or ravens often great warriors of of myth and saga including the likes of the ragnar suns would wait to hold battle until the signs decided that odin and the valker had lost interest now with that being said we can move on from the valkyries because it goes without saying even though i just said it that the valkyries were a terrifying prospect for norse warriors no one wanted to die even though the culture was built around dying with honor you also wanted to live with valor and honor and fight and become legendary and have your own saga you didn't want to die in your first battle no matter how great you were now the next inspiration at least to my mind would be the shilf or the sylphine of the danish shea from scotland and ireland now these creatures are it's very wide and encompassing but some of them are described as having insect like wings some are described with flower characteristics some are described with dandelion seed like characteristics and some like birds now ranked amongst these would be the sylphon that we all would recognize if we were to think that and that would be the fairy-like woman with the wings and this is the only positive version of this myth that really exists as far as harpy inspired or missed that were to inspire the eventual harpies now there are many many different versions of them but most in ireland and scotland are known for bringing about the spring winds bringing about favorable sea wind as well as carrying seeds and other necessary things upon the wind now in some versions of the myth they do cause hurricane and they carry off children and so on but in general these ones are a little bit more onto the positive side so for that one my dear friend killshot this one goes to the side of them being more to the favorability as opposed to being a negative myth but ireland quickly takes it back because one of the most legendary and underspoke about goddesses of ireland is vera calich and vera caller is sometimes in some myths described as being a hag-like bird woman and her wings bringing about the horrible and detrimented winds of winter causing great gales at sea and bringing ice and hail from the sky and she is not a pleasant character in any of her myths as a matter of fact the most famous one is one where she collects bones and puts them in the attic though that is not the same as the one where she described as the bird but we'll mark that as being another myth inspiring herpes that is just definitely not a great one now some of these myths like those of the the doneshay go back thousands of years some before the hellenistic greeks and some after them the earliest tales of veracallic going back some 2 000 years at least as far as we can tell most of these myths are recorded by christian monks between the 1100s and the 1700s so there's a large gap where it's primarily catholic or protestant monks who are recording these stories and they a lot gets lost you all know well now as far as how old they are based on the lore here in the clan well they go back some ways some of them in xx of 2000 years but we'll mark that one in the negative column for the inspirational myths for which harpies come from that's two in the negative and one in the positive let's move on now the next up comes to us from finland now this is based more off of artist representation than their actual descriptions but some tales of the children of laohi the the goddess of pohola in finland's kalavala and their mythology now it goes to say that finland also shares a lot of myth and lore with the estonians and a couple of other groups i'm saying finnish for sake of simplicity but the goddess of pohola the queen of the north hostile lands is in some depictions shown as being a hag bird woman who chases after vona moynin and lemonkoinen the heroes of the calavala and her children are also sometimes depicted that way and in i'd say about 90 percent of the myths surrounding her she's a nasty character even if she's not a bad guy or or a villain in the most traditional sense she's definitely an unpleasant foe to go up against as she does rule the hostile area of the north that is allegedly where the diseases of the world and all of the cold comes from and yes i know laviatar is technically the mother of the nine diseases but the reason why we are uh we are including this is because there are some versions of that myth where laohi is the mother of the nine diseases and there are some words laviator so my finnish friends don't get upset i'm just trying to include you in the list but that's gonna go into a negative side i'm afraid so we've got three down and one positive it is not looking good fourth the positive writing for the harpies and it only gets worse as we go into their real myth of origin the first time that they are referred to as harpies or similar word two herpes and that is the hellenistic greeks or rather the greco-romans and while harpies are not mentioned many times in the greek myths their most prominent and probably most famous myth is in that of the story of the king phineas who was given the gift of foresight by zeus and then allegedly abused it now the only one who had a say into whether or not he abused it was zeus so he sort of kind of revealed too much for zeus's taste about the god's plans and we can go more into that if you guys would like a full video on the myths surrounding phineas and how he is uh misfortuned by zeus please also leave that in the kilt section lower section down below now what ends up happening is zeus locks him up on an island where he's not allowed to leave and sets before him a mighty and beautiful feast a name he sicks the harpies on him and the harpy's job is to snatch the food from his hands before he can ever get a full bite or ever really get a taste for the food and then before they leave now the wording is to they they they they drop something on the table to sully the meal and make it on on uneditable but unfortunately reading from context it's likely that the harpies are crapping on the table and making the food inedible so the origin myth of herpes where they are first called harpies in and of themselves now there are a couple of stories of this that are older that mention harpy and a couple that are newer and there are some where they are guardians and there are some where they are even worse than this but in general this is how they are and it's only because of one of greek's greatest heroes one of the well one of the greco-roman greatest heroes that phineas king phineas is ever actually saved from this but again if you'd like that story please leave it in the kill section below and i'll i'll get it out for you so that is four solid miss stating that the harpy is a rank evil and horrendous character so this one my friend killshot goes to you and let all of those who defend the harpies know that if you were to invite them for a meal they'd likely end up where they eat thank you so much for joining us if you have enjoyed i bid you leave a like on the video it helps a lot to reach those who are far beyond the tavern and bring in more who love to hear stories you can find down in the kilt section below links to all my podcasts participles and platforms as well as links to my podcast endless epic where we talk about stories as well as read books thank you so much for joining me here my tavern friends i hope that you will stay bloodthirsty and come back next time that you have a story that you'd like to hear and of course remember all hail the black dragons

Channel: Black Dragon Tavern

Views: 971

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Slim Yeezus, Real Slim Yeezus, The Real Slim Yeezus, Pagan, Ireland, Gaelic, Heathen, Celtic, slim yeezus, therealslimyeezus, commentary, educational, tiktok, tik tok, tik, tok, greek mythology, the harpy, the harpies, harpy greek mythology, mythical creatures, the harpy explained, harpy beastiary, what is a harpy?, greek mythology harpy, greek mythology explained, creatures in greek mythology, a history of harpies, dungeons and dragons, harpy greek mythology story

Id: GWS2bTWnJj0

Length: 16min 49sec (1009 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021