Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/48

 34 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Erinyes (Eumenides): Hesiod, Theog. 185; Aeschylus, Eumen- ides; Ovid, Met. i. 241, iv. 490, xi. 14 ; Vergil, Aen. ii. 337, 573, iv. 469, vii. 447 ; Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day 69 : The Furies sink upon their iron beds And snakes uncurl'd hang list'ning round their heads. Spenser, F. Q. i. iii. 36, v. 31. 2. DIVINITIES OF THE WIND 43. As the wind itself shares one of its principal characteristics, swiftness, with the thunderclouds, so the divinities to whose activity was traced the power manifesting itself in the wind resembled the represent- atives of the thundercloud in many ways. A middle ground between the two seems to have been occupied by the Harpyiae ('the swift robbers'), Aello (' storm-swift'), and Ocypete (' swift-flying '), whose field of action was in the storm clouds. They are represented as winged and with a horse's shape, also as creatures with the head and bust of a woman, and the body of a bird, figures which were intended to suggest their swiftness. They came to be regarded as goddesses of death, swiftly snatching away their victims ; evidently because it was supposed that souls, being like air or smoke, were, on leaving the body, carried away by the storm. 44. Closely allied to the Harpies are the wind gods proper, who often, as enemies or as lovers, pursue them ; for in the earliest times the wind gods too were believed to have the form of a horse, later that of bearded men, taking long strides, with wings on their shoulders and often also on their feet. Sometimes they have faces looking both ways, forwards and backwards, a conception which probably has reference to the changeableness in the direction of the wind. There were distinguished in