Stymphalian Birds
Man-eating birds with bronze beaks and metallic feathers they could launch as arrows, inhabiting the marshes of Stymphalos in Arcadia.
The Myth of Stymphalian Birds
The Stymphalian Birds infested the marshes around Lake Stymphalos in Arcadia, where they had gathered in numbers so vast they blotted out the sun. Their feathers were bronze and could be launched like arrows, their beaks could pierce armour, and their droppings poisoned the land. Some accounts say they were sacred to Ares and had been driven to Stymphalos by wolves. For his sixth labour, Heracles could not enter the marsh — the ground was too soft to bear his weight and too thick to sail through. Athena came to his aid, giving him a bronze rattle (krotala) forged by Hephaestus. The noise startled the birds into flight, and Heracles shot them down with arrows poisoned with the blood of the Lernaean Hydra. The surviving birds fled to the island of Aretias in the Black Sea, where the Argonauts later encountered them during their voyage to Colchis.
Parents
Ares (sacred to)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Stymphalian Birds' bronze feathers that launch like projectiles make them effectively flying weapon systems — ancient mythology's closest analogue to a military drone. The idea of aerial threats that attack from above and must be countered with noise and projectiles reads like a remarkably prescient description of anti-aircraft warfare, conceived in the Bronze Age.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Stymphalian Birds
🐉 creatureMan-eating birds with bronze beaks
The Stymphalian Birds were a flock of man-eating birds with beaks of bronze and toxic dung, inhabiting the marshes around Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia.
Stymphalian Cranes
🐉 creaturebirds
War-birds sacred to Ares on the Isle of Ares that attacked the Argonauts with bronze feather-darts
Stymphalian Birds
💭 conceptlabour
The sixth labour of Heracles: driving away man-eating birds with bronze beaks from Lake Stymphalos in Arcadia.
Stymphalus
🏛 placeGeography
A lake and region in Arcadia where Heracles defeated the man-eating Stymphalian Birds as his sixth labour
Stymphalos
🏛 placeLake of the man-eating birds
Lake Stymphalia was the marsh in Arcadia where Heracles drove away the Stymphalian Birds for his sixth labour — the lake and birds may reflect real ecological memory.
Pygmies
🐉 creaturelegendary races,birds
A legendary race of diminutive humans, each a pygme (about thirteen inches) tall, who lived in Africa or India and were engaged in perpetual warfare with the cranes who migrated through their territory.
Strix
🐉 creaturedemons
A vampiric owl-woman that preyed on infants at night, drinking their blood and eating their flesh
Ceryneian Hind
🐉 creaturelabour, sacred
A golden-antlered, bronze-hooved deer sacred to Artemis that Heracles pursued for an entire year as his third labour.
Mares of Diomedes
🐉 creatureMan-eating horses of Thrace
The Mares of Diomedes were four savage horses that King Diomedes of Thrace fed on human flesh, making them wild and uncontrollable — the eighth labour of Heracles.
Erymanthian Boar
🐉 creatureGiant boar of Mount Erymanthos
The Erymanthian Boar was a gigantic wild boar that ravaged the lands around Mount Erymanthos in Arcadia — the fourth labour of Heracles.
Phoenix
🐉 creatureImmortal bird reborn from fire
A magnificent bird that lived for centuries before burning to death in a nest of spices and being reborn from its own ashes. The ultimate symbol of renewal.
Drakon Ismenios
🐉 creaturedragons
A sacred dragon of Ares that guarded the spring of Ismene near Thebes