STYMPHALIDES

 

 

THE ORNITHES STYMPHALIDES (of Stymphalian Birds) were a flock of man-eating birds which haunted Lake Stymphalis in Arkadia. Herakles’ destroyed them as his sixth labour, employing first a rattle to rouse them from the thick vegetation of the lake, then shooting them down one by one with bow and arrow or a sling.

The birds were then placed amongst the stars as the constellations Aquila, Lyra and Cygnus.

The Stymphalides were sometimes identified with the arrow-shooting Ornithes Areioi (Birds of Ares), encountered by the Argonauts on the Black Sea.

 

http://www.theoi.com/Ther/OrnithesStymphalides.html

 

Lake Stymphalis in Arkadia

 

 

 

 

Lat. 37.56199695314352

 

Long. 22.4395751953125

 

name of photo: stymph1.jpg