Harpy enemy line

The Harpy, Virago, and Harridan are species of monsters randomly battled in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. These monsters, resembling humanoid bird creatures without beaks, are palette-swapped variants of each other that have differing levels of power and defense and are fought in different locations in the games.

Harpy
A Harpy is a blue variant with yellow eyes. Statistically, this monster has 105 HP, 104 Attack, 25 Defense, 46 Agility, and 4 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

The Harpy uses these battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 6 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Shriek: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill that launches rings of green energy through a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 30.

Felling a Harpy yields 38 Experience Points and 53 Coins, and there is a 1/16 chance that the monster will randomly drop an Elixir. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 49 EXP and 68 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/4. In Golden Sun it is battled throughout Mercury Lighthouse. In The Lost Age it is battled throughout Air's Rock.

In the first game, none of the Harpy's statistics are as strong as the Siren it is often fought alongside, and it is also outperformed by the Lizard Man in durability. It is generally not something to watch out for there; in The Lost Age on the other hand, it's easily the best enemy on the exterior portion of Air's Rock, and is outperformed by the Mummy in the interior portion of the dungeon only by a small margin.

Virago
A Virago is a light-green variant with violet eyes. Statistically, this monster has 185 HP, 199 Attack, 47 Defense, 89 Agility, and 4 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

The Virago uses these battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 6 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Banshee Howl: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill that launches rings of purple energy through a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 70, and there is a chance that the hit Adept will be inflicted with Stun.

Felling a Virago yields 87 Experience Points and 120 Coins, and there is a 1/16 chance that the monster will randomly drop an Elixir. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 113 EXP and 156 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/4. In Golden Sun it is an enemy that does not appear in random encounters at all, only appearing as parts of limited scripted encounters along with other enemies, namely one alongside two Man o' Wars as the third battle on the Tolbi-bound Ship and two alongside the Hobgoblin at the entrance to the first dungeon floor of the optional Crossbone Isle. In The Lost Age it becomes a traditionally battled random enemy, appearing throughout Aqua Rock.

In the first game, since only three are ever fought, two of which are weak "assistants" to a bigger enemy, they should be no problem at all to deal with area-of-effect offensive Psynergy. The same could be said of its appearance in the second game, where from the start of Air's Rock it is quite outperformed in all stats by the Roc, which itself is hugely outperformed in Agility by the Faery, and that is not to mention the other stronger monsters fought throughout the dungeon interior.

Harridan
A Harridan is a whitish-red variant with turquoise eyes. Statistically, this monster has 231 HP, 29 PP, 261 Attack, 66 Defense, 118 Agility, and 8 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has Venus Resistance rating of 175, a Mercury Resistance rating of 100, a Mars Resistance rating of 72, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 25 - in other words, the same as the previous two variants, but all increased. In regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

The Harridan uses these battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Banshee Howl: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill that launches rings of purple energy through a targeted Adept, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 70, and there is a chance that the hit Adept will be inflicted with Stun.
 * Crazy Voice: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill that generates a batch of small glowing purple musical note symbols that floats into a targeted Adept and shatter, lowering the Adept's PP meter by roughly 10 points.
 * Wind Slash: Used 2 out of 8 times in theory, this is a Psynergy spell that projects a moderately wide glowing purple swath of energy through each of multiple Adepts, dealing a Jupiter-based attack with a power rating of 50 and a range of 3. This ability consumes 9 of its user's PP.

Felling a Harridan yields 150 Experience Points and 164 Coins, and there is a 1/32 chance that the monster will randomly drop a Nut. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 195 EXP and 213 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/8. In Golden Sun it is randomly fought throughout Suhalla Desert, and one of them appears alongside two Stone Soldiers as the monsters supporting the Lizard King mini-boss that is fought in a scripted battle in front of the fifth dungeon floor of the optional Crossbone Isle. In The Lost Age it is battled throughout Tundaria Tower, Ankohl Ruins and the earlier, easier portion of the optional Treasure Isle.

In the first game, it is the fastest of the enemies fought throughout Suhalla Desert, and its attacking and power is about the same as the others, with less durability in comparison to them. In the second game, though, it is nothing special, with monsters like the Minotaurus providing higher threat levels with all of its statistics being higher.

Cultural References
Harpy, Virago, and Harridan are all archaic insults against women in general in some form. While the connotations of the term "Harpy" are more evident from its mythological familiarity covered below, a "Virago" technically denotes a strong, brave, or warlike woman, which seems to be a positive aspect and was viewed as such initially. However, since this was viewed as a departure from the normative gender roles of society that were in place in England at the time, Virago became a pejorative to demean women who acted aggressively. And a "Harridan" is a woman regarded as scolding and vicious.

Harpy
Origin: Greek

A harpy is a winged death-spirit with a woman’s head and a bird’s body. The name comes from the ancient Greek word “harpázein” meaning "to snatch". It is often envisioned as a violent creature, and much popular culture, Golden Sun included, depicts it as making piercingly loud, shrill shrieks.