Never mind the title, it's a popular French song that my mga kaibigan had in their heads recently. If you're really interested here's the link, but it's really not necessary for you.

What is necessary is the checking out of Ella the Harpy on the bayani of Olympus website! Actually, not even that, because here is the info!

Ella the Harpy

This is not your typical ridiculously skinny half bird half woman. Ella the Harpy is madami than meets the eye, and a very useful ally for demigods Percy, Hazel, and Frank.

What does she do? If an encyclopedia could take the form of a woman (or bird), it would be Ella. Any tanong from Latin phrases to the definition of photosynthesis, she knows the answer.

Noteworthy: Don't let her tiny body fool you, she's got a massive appetite - just don't feed her cheese. Ella doesn't like cheese.

Well... Let's get to it, shall we? Seeing as some of you have been pagbaba my artikulo for nearly a year, you know the drill (the good news for you is: only 19 madami days of these to go! The bad news is: for the susunod book, it'll be a whole new brand of crazy!)

Let's start with the very simple answer to the very simple question; what the Hades is a harpy?

A harpy is a spirit of a sudden, sharp gust of wind. The kind of thing that steals your umbrellas and makes the leaves spiral around when it's fall. They're described as half-bird and half-woman in myths (sometimes just as winged women), and as demonical chicken-women in Percy Jackson. They serve lunch at Camp Half-Blood, eat the campers who stay out late or don't let Mr D and Chiron know they're staying year-round, and make floors for Aeolus at the OW! Chanel studios.
    Another way harpies were known were as 'the hounds of Zeus', as the god sent them to snatch people and things off the surface of the earth. Because of that, when someone or something went suddenly missing- you blamed it on a harpy (like that left medyas that never makes it out of the washing machine, or the stupid pen you put down never to be seen again).

But that's a piece of information right there. Not my socks and pens; sudden disapearance. We haven't seen ANY of that, now have we?

Moving on: a famous myth about harpies. Yeay!

There's was this guy; King Phineus of Ferb- I mean Thrace! And no; he did not have a pet platypus. The extent of his experience with mga hayop were harpies, who were sent sa pamamagitan ng Zeus as a plague. Why did Zeus do this? Phineus could build anything- I mean, Phineus had the gift of prophecy, but he revealed a bit too much about everything to everyone.

The harpies didn't peck his liver or chew his arm until they hit bone or anything. They estola any pagkain that was placed anywhere near the king. How did he get rid of it? The Argonatus came along and the two Boreads -Zethes and Cal, those dudes- chased them away to the Strophedes island. They stopped there because Iris popped up and told them to leave her sisters, the harpies, alone.

The only harpy mentioned sa pamamagitan ng name (until Ella, teriyaki and Aeolus' other assistants) was Podarge. She was married to the wind god Zephryus and gave birth to the horses (?) Xanthus and Balius, who belonged to Achilles. I'm not sure how Wind God + Harpy= horse, but I didn't know that you could eat your own children either, so this is actually an improvement.

So what's up with this particular harpy?

Let's start from the visual evidence we have of her.

She seems to be in a aklatan of some kind. Maybe archive storage, mythical bookstore or something.

She’s got red hair, and red feathered wings tipped with claws that I wouldn’t want close to my face. If you look at her body it’s fuzzy brown, and looks kind of like a dress when you look around her neckline- where bird meets human.

Her eyes are brownish grey and she looks… She looks scared. She looks like she’s cowering a bit, or just very shy and doesn’t take a lot of room in the first place. She’s reaching for a book, or just touching it. No clue if it’s important but there’s a ‘B’ on the spine of the book.

Also; one of the books is called ‘voyage extraordinaire’- ‘extraordinary trips’ in French, which means Ella speaks it. Last Francophone characters of the bayani of Olympus series; Piper McLean, Drew Whatshersurname, Boreas, Zethes, Cal and Khione. Or maybe she doesn’t actually speak French, but she just has the book for the pleasure of owning a book. I own Harry Potter in Hebrew don’t I- it’s possible! Maybe she’s teaching herself how to talk and understand various languages with books.
They say she has a small body- so Ella isn’t an ode to strength and height, even if her appetite is supposedly the stuff of legends. Harpies are always hungry, right?
But Ella doesn’t look like the harpies that Rick Riordan has already described for us- I mean, she’s pretty for one thing, and she doesn’t look like a chicken-lady. Do the Romans have a madami classic, noble, and appealing view of their dieties and monsters than ‘demonic chicken lady’? Probably- I mean, Aquilo had a toga and Juno seems pretty wow-worthy.

Now, let’s go with the beginning;

Ella the Harpy

This is not your typical ridiculously skinny half bird half woman. Ella the Harpy is madami than meets the eye, and a very useful ally for demigods Percy, Hazel, and Frank.

Okay, madami than meets the eye, what gives? Can she hula dance while baking a cake and jumping on one foot? Is it just because she’s got the brains of an Annabeth? Can she control the winds a bit (because that would be useful)? Does she work at Camp Caesar salad like the harpies at Camp Half-Blood do? I sort of doubt that last one, because Roman soldiers were really independent, making their own meals and such.

Ella is not only an info mine, she’s also winged. Her wings can most likely support her weight and make her fly, which means that if they ever have problems with the gorgons coming back… Ella is going on bird-woman-of-prey mode! Also, depending on how strong she is, she might be able to carry heavy weights, such as 3 teenage demigods (although Percy hates flying, and flying hates him back).

You're going to have to wait for me to fully explain this; but I think that Ella might take the trio home.

What does she do? If an encyclopaedia could take the form of a woman (or bird), it would be Ella. Any tanong from Latin phrases to the definition of photosynthesis, she knows the answer.

That's a bit odd, isn't it? When I think of half-bird, half-human beasts, 'intelligence' isn't on my listahan of associated qualities. And it wasn't for the people of the Mediterranean either, as far as I've read and heard.

So where did Ella learn this stuff? Is she somehow involved with Camp Caesar Salad? Has she been living in a aklatan somewhere, or posing as a mortal girl and going to school? Has she been talking with someone who did know these things; like a child of Athena/Minerva or the goddess herself? Maybe a god associated with prophecies and all-knowing, like Aeolus or Apollo. Or even some oracle or Augury.

Noteworthy: Don't let her tiny body fool you, she's got a massive appetite - just don't feed her cheese. Ella doesn't like cheese.

Ella's lactose intolerant; simple as that. Okay, probably not, but could be.

What's Ella's bad experience with cheese? Was she lured into a trap sa pamamagitan ng it? Does she have issues with cows? Maybe she's from Switzerland and it makes her homesick- I don't know!

But what I do know, is that harpies were once accused of stealing food. Remember King Phineus? Exactly that. And they were described in the Sea of Monsters as 'always hungry', and Tantalus once let them eat all campers who were out after curfew, just as they're allowed to indulge in Half-Blood pot-pie whenever one doesn't give in his paper stating that he's staying taon round.

So here's one thing that possibly happened to Ella the Harpy.

    Jason suddenly disappeared from Camp Caesar Salad, and theories flying around say that an Aquila might’ve to. Some of the Roman demigods figure ‘HARPY! AH!’ and they capture one to grill/torture it for info. Say it’s Ella. Well she, and the rest of harpy kind, don’t know!

    When Percy arrives, he might establish in some way that Ella is innocent.

    But they keep believing that the harpies might have something to do with this, and there is an augury or something, which sends Percy, Hazel and Frank to the coven of harpies, or the nest where they all hang out. Who better to help out than Ella?

    Or they could even go to Hyperborea, when I think about it.

    Hyperborea was a land of eternal springtime beyond the Cold North Wind. Once again ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the Son of Neptune official cover.



    The Hyperborean giants live there. They are sons of either Boreas or Khione, which is 1.5 evil or nasty right there.
    Anyways, I was just thinking that all these wind spirits seemed to be connected, so in a land where it’s always spring and children of the wind god roamed, where apparently Boreas had his palace… Well; I was thinking it wouldn’t be a bad place for the harpies to hang out, or for Khione to help set up evil base or resurface vengeful cities in the peace and quiet that evil needs.
    And while we’re talking about ‘the land of eternal springtime beyond the Cold North Wind’…
    Well, the Cold North Wind is in Québec City. Beyond that? You’ve got other Québec cities and villages, the north of the other provinces of Canada and the 3 territories. Nunavut, North-West territories and the Yukon. It’s right susunod to Alaska actually.
    Plus, in the Last Olympian, Thalia once mentioned that there was a colony of Hyperborean giants in Alberta. Is that a part of Hyperborea? I don’t personally think so, because in Alberta you don’t think ‘cold’. You think bad lands, dinosaur digs, hoodoos, West Edmonton Mall, Calgary Winter Olympic stadium, etc. Not cold thoughts. So probably not there; but I’m all in for Percy coming to Canada!

    Yet one thing bothers me about that theory, which already bothers me because it’s a tad far-fetched; in the synopsises it makes it sound like only 3 people are heading out on this one. So do they stumble across her, is she assigned to them as help, does she find them, do they find her or what? Maybe Ella worked for a god who had info for them- hence the library, how she knows so much and why she might be scared of the monster.
    
    Another good question; is Ella going to be good or bad?
    Judging sa pamamagitan ng the word ‘ally’, I’m going with ‘good’. But then again; Luke was a friend. Quintus was an enemy once. Everything can change! But looking at Ella’s expression and how she seems to be… I think that Ella’s ally status is safe. But then again; you’re talking to the girl who didn’t see Luke coming and thinks Reyna is cool just sa pamamagitan ng how fast she decided she wanted to kill Percy.

    2 things I think are worth mentioning before I get you out of your misery, call it a night and stop typing;
1)    The two horses that came from the wind god/harpy combo? Yes; the ones Achilles had- I have a feeling that maybe one of them is the one we see Hazel ridding on in her character art.
2)    Iris protected the harpies once when the Boreads were after her; maybe we’ll finally get a glimpse of the bahaghari goddess! She’s like Hecate; we’ve been hearing about her for 6 books, finally got a cabin, met a child of hers and it’s about time she shows up! Plus this is perfect motive. If Ella is feeling threatened and Iris is feeling protective about her sister… BAM!



And 2 things I am sure of-
1)    …
2)    … A-….


In French, ‘Ella elle l’a’ means ‘Ella’ and then ‘She has’, even if it’s all pronounced ‘Ella Ella’. So what does Ella have? Wicked character art, many tanong to her name and a most likely important role in a book that we only have 19 waiting days left for. Until ten- happy waiting and keep theories going on what Elle a!

Image Credit: Ella- The Official Website
Harpies- link
Iris- link