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Aello

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In Greek mythology, Aello (/ˈɛl/; Ancient Greek: Ἀελλώ, Aellō means "storm" or "storm-swift" in ancient Greek) was one of the Harpy sisters who would abduct people and torture them on their way to Tartarus.[1]

Other names

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Aello was also referred to as:

Family

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As one of the Harpies, Aello was the daughter of the sea god Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra[6] (also called Ozomene[7]). Her harpy-sisters were Ocypete and Celaeno, whereas other mentioned siblings were Iris, and possibly Arke[8] and Hydaspes.[9] In other accounts, Harpies were called the progeny of Typhoeus, father of these monsters,[10] or of Pontus (Sea) and Gaea (Earth) or of Poseidon, god of the sea.[11]

Aello was claimed to be the mother of Achilles's immortal steeds Balius and Xanthus by Zephyrus[12] but some sources claimed it was really her sister Celaeno.

Homer's Iliad Quintus' Posthomerica
"Xanthus and Balius, that flew swift as the winds,

horses that the Harpy Podarge conceived to the West Wind [i.e. Zephyrus], as she grazed on the meadow beside the stream of Oceanus."[13]

"From wretched men, over the Ocean's streams,

Over the Sea-queen's caverns, unto where Divine Podarge bare that storm-foot twain [i.e. Xanthus and Balius] Begotten of the West-wind [i.e. Zephyros] clarion-voiced"[14]

Mythology

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According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Aello was the harpy who was encountered by Aeneas' company in their wanderings after the fall of Troy:

"Wintry seas then tossed the heroic band, and in a treacherous harbor of those isles, called Strophades, Aello frightened them."[15]

Namesake

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Aello was also the name of one of Actaeon's dogs who destroyed their master when he was changed into a stag by the goddess of hunt, Artemis.[16]

Notes

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  1. ^ Bell, Robert E. (1991). Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-CLIO. p. 9. ISBN 9780874365818.
  2. ^ Apollodorus, 1.9.21; Hyginus, Fabulae 14.3
  3. ^ Homer, Iliad 16.150
  4. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae Preface
  5. ^ Apollodorus, 1.9.21
  6. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 267; Apollodorus, 1.2.6; Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 167
  7. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 14
  8. ^ Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History 6; Photius, Bibliotheca 190
  9. ^ Nonnus, 26.351ff.
  10. ^ Valerius Flaccus, 4.425
  11. ^ Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 3.241
  12. ^ Homer, Iliad 16.149-151 & 19.400; Quintus Smyrnaeus, 3.748-751
  13. ^ Homer, Iliad 16.149-151
  14. ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, 3.748-751
  15. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.709-710
  16. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.219; Hyginus, Fabulae 181

References

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