Tradition / Region: Greek Mythology
Alternative names: Stymphalides Ornithes
Category: Bird
The Myth
The Stymphalian Birds were a flock of monstrous, man-eating birds that dwelled in the marshes of Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia. They possessed bronze beaks, razor-sharp metallic feathers that they could shoot like arrows, and poisonous droppings. Sacred to Artemis or, in some traditions, raised by Ares, they devastated the surrounding countryside, killing people and destroying crops.
The birds were the target of the Sixth Labour of Heracles. Unable to enter the marsh where they nested, Heracles received a bronze rattle from Athena, forged by Hephaestus. Shaking it frightened the birds into the air, allowing him to shoot many of them with arrows tipped in the poisoned blood of the Lernaean Hydra. The surviving birds fled Arcadia and later settled on the island of Aretias in the Black Sea, where they were encountered by the Argonauts during their voyage.
A lesser-known tradition tells a different story, claiming that the Stymphalian Birds were not birds at all but the daughters of Stymphalus and Ornis, who were transformed or represented as birds and slain by Heracles after refusing him hospitality. Nevertheless, they are most widely remembered as the deadly flock defeated during one of the hero’s greatest labors.
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Stymphalian birds. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stymphalian_birds