A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

HARPOCRATION. HARPYIAE. 363
twenty-four, and a Lexicon to Plato in two, books. 1527); but the first critical edition is that by Ph.
(Suidas.) HIe seems to be the same as the Harpor J. Maussac (Paris, 1614, 4to.), with a commentary
cration who is mentioned by Athenaeus (xiv. p. and a learned dissertation on I-larpocration. This
648) along with Chrysippus, and by Stobaeus edition was reprinted, with some improvements and
(Eclog. Plays. i. 2. pp. 896, 912. ed. Heeren.) additional notes of H. Valesius, by N. Blancard,
2. Of Mendes, is mentioned by Athenaeus (xiv. Leyden, 1683, 4to., and followed by the edition of
p. 648) as the author of a work on cakes (Hepl J. GCronovius, Harderwyk, 1696, 4to. The Leip.
1Haccouv0 oaV), but is otherwise unknown. Who the zig edition (1824, 2 vols. 8vo.) incorporates every,
Harpocration is who is mentioned by the Venetian thing that had been done by previous editors for
scholiast on the Iliad (i. 453), as the teacher of Harpocration. The most recent edition-of the text
Dius, is unknown. [L. S.] (together with the dictionary of Moeris) is that of
HARPOCRA'TION, AE'LIUS, a rhetorician I. Bekker, Berlin, 1833, 8vo. [L. S.]
who, according to Suidas, wrote a variety of rhe- HARPYIAE (ApirutaL), that is, "the swift
torical and philosophical works; such as, lIepl 7rv robbers," are, in the Homeric poems, nothing but
boIoo'vs-v ors j'rops mpov 1YVOiyrOaL,'T7'roFeE'sS Ao- personified storm winds. (Od. xx. 66, 77.) Homer
ywv'Tnreplaov, HipI Tir'XVS P'TOplKCS, lIEp1 ies dve, mentions only one by name, viz. Podarge, who was
&c., of which not a trace has come down to us. married to Zephyrus, and gave birth to the two
Another Harpocration, with the praenomen Caius, horses of Achilles, Xanthus and Balius. (I. xvi.
who is likewise mentioned only by Suidas, wrote 149, &c.) When a person suddenly disappeared
works of a similar character, as HIepI T;V'Tirepl8o& from the earth, it was said that he had been carried
icKal Avovdou A&, IHp1 Trcsv'Av-qwoPlvros rx-ad- off by the Harpies (Od. i. 241, xiv. 371); thus,
rwv, and others. Hence it is inferred that Suidas they carried off the daughters of king Pandareus,
is here guilty of some mistake, and that Aelius and gave them as servants to the Erinnyes. (Od.
and Caius Harpocration are perhaps one and the xx. 78.) According to Hesiod (Theog. 267, &c.),
same person, whose full name was C. Aelius Har- the Harpies were the daughters of Thaumas by the
pocration. (Kiessling, Quaest. Attic. Specim. p. Oceanid Electra, fair-locked and winged maidens,
26.) [L. S.] who surpassed winds and birds in the rapidity of
HARPOCRA'TION, VALE'RIUS, the author their flight. Their names in Hesiod are A1llo
of a Greek dictionary to the works of the ten Attic and Ocypete. (Comp. Apollod. i. 2. ~ 6.) But
orators, which is entitled HIepi'rCi; A';ewv rv aeKma even as early as the time of Aeschylus (Eaum. 50),
pVTdpwov, or AeUCtOdv Ti -v 8KOa rrTdpwV, and is still they are described as ugly creatures with wings, and
extant. It contains not only explanations of legal later writers carry their notions of the Harpies so
and political terms, but also accounts of persons far as to represent them as most disgusting monand things mentioned in the orations of the Attic sters. They were sent by the gods as a punishorators. The work is to us of the highest import- ment to harass the blind Phineus, and whenever a
ance, as it contains a vast deal of iniformation on meal was placed before him, they darted down from
the public and civil law of Athens, and on antiqua- the air and carried it off; later writers add, that
rian, historical, and literary subjects, of which we they either devoured the food themselves, or that
should be in ignorance but for this dictionary of they dirtied it by dropping upon it some stinking
Harpocration, for most of the works from which substance, so as to render it unfit to be eaten.
the author compiled are lost, and appear to have They are further described in these later accounts
perished at an early time. Hence Suidas, as birds with the heads of maidens, with long
the author of the Etymologicum Magnum, and claws on their hands, and with faces pale with
other late grammarians, derived their information hunger. (Virg. Aen. iii. 216, &c.; Tzetz. ad LycopLh.
on many points from Harpocration. All we know 653; Ov. Met. vii.4, Fast. vi. 132; Hygin. Fab. 14.)
about his personal history is contained in a line or The traditions about their parentage likewise differ
two in Suidas, who calls him a rhetorician of Alex- in the different traditions, for some called thein
andria, and, besides the above-mentioned dictionary, the daughters of Pontus (or Poseidon) and Terra
attributes to him an dv077poy mrvvaoywr4, which is (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 241), of Typhon (Val. Flacc
lost. We are thus left in the dark as to the time iv. 428, 516), or even of Phineus. (Tzetz. ad Lyin which our rhetorician lived. Some believe that coph. 166, Cihil. i. 220; Palaephat. 23. 3). Their
he is the same person as the Harpocration who, ac- number is either two, as in Hesiod and Apollocording to Julius Capitolinus ( Vesrus, 2), instructed dorus, or three; but their names are not the same
the emperor L. Verus in Greek; so that he would in all writers, and, besides those already mentioned,
have lived in the latter half of the second century we find Aellopos, Nicothoe, Ocythoe, Ocypode,
after Christ. Maussac (Dissert. Crit. p. 378, in Celaeno, Acholoe. (Apollod. i. 9, 21; Serv. ad
Blancard's edition of Harpocration) points out pas- Aen. iii. 209; Hygin. Fab. Praef. p. 15, Fab. 14.)
sages from which it would appear that Harpocration Their place of abode is either the islands called
must have been acquainted with the Deipnoso- Strophades (Virg. Aen. iii. 210), a place at the enphists of Athenaeus, and that consequently he must trance of Orcus (vi. 289), or a cave in Crete.
have lived after the time of Athenaeus. Others, (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 298.) The most celebrated
again, look upon him as identical with the Harpo- story in which the Harpies play a part is that of
cration whom Libanius (Epist. 367) calls a good Phineus, at whose residence the Argonauts arrived
poet and a still better teacher; whence it would while he was plagued by the monsters. He profollow that he lived about A. D. 354. Others, lastly, mised to instruct them respecting the course they
identify him with the physician Harpocration: but had to take, if they would deliver him from tihs
all is mere conjecture, and it is impossible to arrive Harpies. When the food for Phineus was laid out
at any positive conviction. The text of Harpo- on a table, the Harpies immediately came, and
cration's dictionary was first printed, with the were attacked by the Boreades, Zetes and Calais,
Scholia of Ulpian on the Philippics of Demosthenes, who were among the Argonauts, and provided
in the Aldine edition (Venice, 1503, and again in with wings. According to an ancient oracle, the
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