Further Resources: The Stymphalian Birds

• Read the story of Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds, as told by Apollodorus, the ancient writer who collected legends in his mythology handbook, the Library.
• The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was decorated with sculptures illustrating the Labors of Hercules. Look at the sculpture catalog entry for the Stymphalian Birds metope.
• Find more depictions of krotala on a vase from Harvard painted with a scene of two women dancing.
• See a picture of the smith god, Hephaistos, with hammer and tongs, painted between 430 and 420 B.C. on a Greek vase.
• Tour the vicinity of Stymphalos with some pictures of nearby mountains and the countryside.
• Browse the catalog entries and see more pictures of the Philadelphia vase with the dancer holding krotala, or the London vase with Hercules and the birds.
• Read a short chorus sung by birds, from the comic play by Aristophanes called Birds. In this chorus, the birds boast of all the services they provide for mortals.
• Women with legs of birds were the mythological creatures we know as sirens. See a vase in the shape of a siren.

Go back to the Stymphalian Birds page.

This exhibit is a subset of materials from the Perseus Project digital library and is copyrighted. Please send us your comments.