55/122 The story alluded to is that Phineus, king of Thrace, unjustly put out the eyes of his sons. As a punishment the gods blinded him, and sent the Harpies--loathsome monsters with the bodies of birds and the faces of women--to defile and seize all the food that was set before him. Phineus was at last freed from them by Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who drove the Harpies from Thrace to the Strophades. Ulysses, the most cunning of the Greek leaders before Troy, was king of Ithaca, and son of Laertes. |