The winged argonauts, Calais and Zetes, come to deliver Phineas from the Harpies. Phineas, a king of Thrace, had the gift of prophecy. Zeus, angry that Phineas revealed too much, punished him by blinding him and putting him on an island with a buffet of food which he could never eat. The harpies always arrived to steal the food out of his hands before he could satisfy his hunger, and befouled the remains of his food. This continued until the arrival of Jason and the Argonauts. In earlier versions of Greek myth, Harpies were described as beautiful, winged maidens. Later they became winged monsters with the face of an ugly old woman and equipped with crooked, sharp talons. The literal meaning of the word seems to be "that which snatches". They were vicious, cruel and violent. They were agents of punishment who abducted people and tortured them. They lived on the islands of the Strophades. They were usually seen as the personifications of the destructive nature of wind: Aello (storm swift), Celaeno (the dark) and Ocypete (the swift wing).