Stymphalian bird

Stymphalian birds

Heracles and the Stymphalian birds. Detail of a Roman mosaic from Llíria (Spain).
Grouping	Legendary creature
Sub grouping	Birds
Mythology	Greek mythology
Country	Greece
Region	Arcadia
Habitat	Lake Stymphalia

The Stymphalian birds (pronounced /stɪmˈfeɪliən/ stim-FAY-lee-ən; Greek: Στυμφαλίδες ὄρνιθες, Stymphalídes órnithes) are a group of birds in Greek mythology. The birds' appellation is derived from their dwelling in a swamp in Stymphalia.

The Stymphalian Birds are man-eating birds with beaks of bronze, sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims, and poisonous dung. They were pets of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. They migrated to a marsh in Arcadia to escape a pack of wolves. There they bred quickly and swarmed over the countryside, destroying crops, fruit trees, and townspeople.

The Stymphalian birds were defeated by the hero Heracles (Hercules) in his sixth labour for Eurystheus. Heracles could not go into the marsh to reach the nests of the birds, as the ground would not support his weight. Athena, noticing the hero's plight, gave Heracles a rattle called a krotala, which Hephaestus had made especially for the occasion. Heracles shook the krotala (similar to castanets) and frightened the birds into the air. Heracles then shot many of them with arrows tipped with poisonous blood from the slain Hydra. The rest flew far away, never to plague Arcadia again. Heracles brought some of the slain birds to Eurystheus as proof of his success.

The surviving birds made a new home on an island in the Euxine Sea. The Argonauts later encountered them there.