Harpies

The capital shows a pair of harpies on each of the corners of the north and south sides, while the narrow sides of the capital on the east and west sides are decorated with a large acanthus leaf.
Harpies are distinguished by a bird’s body with human, mainly female face. Just like sirens, they originated in Greek mythology – we recall for instance the hero in Homer’s Odyssey who is seduced by the song of the sirens. But in the medieval repertoire the gender of harpies and marine creatures can have a variety of connotations. The faces of the harpies in this capital are characterized by several animal features and thus have a largely negative connotation.
Like the multiplicity of monstrous creatures represented in Romanesque sculpture – as in the cloister of Santo Domingo de Silos or in Burgos – harpies and sirens do not belong to the repertoire of paradise; in particular they are often represented entangled in the interstices of tendrils and thus symbolize a state of damnation.
The capital is severely damaged; only the pair of harpies on the north side is somewhat better preserved. These hybrid beings stand on a garland of finely chiselled acanthus leaves, from which a further leaf reaches right up to the abacus on each of the narrow sides of the capital.
The impost, by contrast, is decorated with an interlaced pattern of tendrils forming foliage and fruits.

vegetal face human plume bird Harpie