As a child, I loved to read. And one of my favorite things to do was studying the myths and legends of Ancient Greece. The most famous of them are the legends about the famous Hercules. And one of his feats is the victory over the Stymphalian birds.
But what kind of creatures they were, I still did not understand. Let's try to understand this issue. There are several versions at the expense of the Stymphalian birds.
Firstly - did you know that the city of Stymphal really exists on the territory of our planet - it is located in the northeast of Arcadia.
The city is many hundreds of years old and in the distant past it was an important strategic object, because stand on several routes of trade routes at once.
And not far from the city was the lake of the same name. Now there is nothing there - the lake has dried up. But if you believe the legends, in the past it was not even a lake, but rather a swamp with very dangerous vapors.
So - the Stimfali birds just appeared on the shore of this lake. According to the legends, they caused a lot of problems for local residents. Judging by the descriptions, their appearance was really disgusting and terrible - each of the birds had a very sharp beak, comparable to a sword.
Promotional video:
And the claws were not inferior in sharpness and danger to metal daggers. The birds were well protected - their feathers were made of bronze, and they could release them at enemies, just as a porcupine releases its quills.
They terrorized not only local residents, but also various animals living on the territory of the lake. For a long time, no one could cope with them. And one day King Eurystheus turned to the famous Hercules for help.
However, it was very difficult for him to fight these creatures. Who knows how the battle would have ended if Hercules had not been helped by the gods - Athena and Hephaestus.
They handed him two brass tympans. And, making a strong noise with their help, Hercules managed to drive the birds out of the lake. If I'm not mistaken, they headed roughly in the direction of the Crimea and they never bothered Arkady again.
This is just one of the versions. There is another version, which was followed by Mnasey from the city of Patra, who lived in the middle of the second century BC.
He believed that the Stimphalia birds were not "birds" in the usual sense of the word - they were mutant girls (with some birdlike features) who were killed by Hercules not because they terrorized the local people, but simply because they refused him a proxenia - this is how the ritual of hospitality was called in ancient times.
It should be noted that another person, Pausanias (an ancient Greek geographer and writer who also lived in the second century BC), also spoke about the Stimphalia birds. In his works, he described that in the city of Stymphale there was an ancient temple of Artemis Stymphalian.
And on the roof of this temple, the Stimphalia birds were depicted. And in the backyard of the building there were statues of girls. Only they were not quite ordinary girls - with legs in the form of birds.
Harpies are obtained. According to Pausanias, the statues in the backyard were made of marble. However, this version was not widely adopted. Apparently, they decided to dwell on the fact that Hercules fought with birds, and not with mutant girls.
If we consider the version of Pausanias in more detail, it turns out that according to his version, these girls-birds flew to the shore of the lake from the deserts of Arabia. In general, Arabia was "loved" by many ancient Greek historians - Herodotus himself wrote that some "flying lizards" lived there.
According to the third version, proposed at one time by the English poet and novelist Robert Graves, the famous Stimphalia birds could have been the most common ostriches, only of a much larger size. But this version was not widely used either.
A long time ago, archaeologists carried out excavations on the territory of the ancient city of Vulchi. In the distant past, it was one of the city-states on the territory of Etruria, located a few tens of kilometers from another city - the city of Tarquinia, which has survived to our time.
It is believed that the city of Vulci was destroyed by the Romans in 280 BC. So - during the excavation of this city, archaeologists discovered an ancient amphora, on which you can see the scene of the battle of Hercules with these birds. Only here these birds are very much like swans.
In general, the question of the origin of the Stymphalian birds is still a mystery. And it's not a fact that they actually existed. Who do you think these famous birds were? Write your opinion in the comments.