Aeneas and the Harpies

Book III of the Aeneid.  I have an essay to write about Dido's love for Aeneas.  This evening, however, we've not yet reached the end of our hero's long re-telling of his misadventures after Troy fell.  (Although it's a long re-telling it's nothing like as long as the tall tales told about Odysseus, which are - from time to time - ponderous.)  When we reached Strophades and the Trojans set about the "sleek lusty herds of cattle grazing the plains, / flocks of goats unguarded, cropping grassland" I was on the side of the Harpies to be honest.

It may be that there are "no monsters on earth more cruel, / no scourge more savage" than Celaeno and her sisters.  But Aeneas must have known to whom those cows and goats belonged when he started hunting them down.  Sometimes, one despairs of these epic heroes.  As Homer (Simpson) might say: Harpies?  Doh!

Aeneas and his companions fighting the Harpies.  Francois Perrier (1646-47)