Lapiths
The Lapiths (
Mythology
Origin
The Lapiths were an
In the Iliad the Lapiths send forty crewed ships to join the Greek fleet in the Trojan War, commanded by Polypoetes (son of Pirithous) and Leonteus (son of Coronus, son of Caeneus). The mother of Pirithous, the Lapith king in the generation before the Trojan War, was Dia, daughter of Eioneus or Deioneus; Ixion was the father of Pirithous, but like many heroic figures, Pirithous had an immortal as well as a mortal father.[a] Zeus was his immortal father, but the god had to assume a stallion's form to cover Dia for, like their half-horse cousins, the Lapiths were horsemen in the grasslands of Thessaly, famous for its horses.[5] The Lapiths were credited with inventing the bridle's bit. The Lapith King Pirithous was marrying the horsewoman Hippodameia, whose name means "tamer of horses", at the wedding feast that made a war, the Centauromachy, famous.
Centauromachy
In the Centauromachy, the Lapiths battle with the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. The Centaurs had been invited, but, unused to wine, their wild nature came to the fore. When the bride, Hippodamia, was presented to greet the guests, the centaur Eurytion leapt up and attempted to abduct her. All the other centaurs were up in a moment, straddling women and boys. In the battle that ensued, Theseus came to the Lapiths' aid. They cut off Eurytion's ears and nose and threw him out. After the battle the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest.
The Lapith
In later contests, the Centaurs were not so easily beaten. Mythic references explained the presence into historic times of primitive Lapiths in Malea and in the brigand stronghold of Pholoe in Elis as remnants of groups driven there by the centaurs. Some historic Greek cities bore names connected with Lapiths, and the Kypselides of Corinth claimed descent from Cæneus, while the Phylaides of Attica claimed for progenitor Koronus the Lapith.
In art
As Greek myth became more mediated through philosophy, the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs took on aspects of the interior struggle between civilized and wild behavior, made concrete in the Lapiths' understanding of the right usage of God-given
A sonnet vividly evoking the battle by the French poet
List of Lapiths
Lapiths | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Names | Sources | Centauromachy | Notes | |||
Hesiod | Ovid | Others | Participant | Killed by | ||
Actor | ✓ | [11] | ✓ | Centaur Clanis | ||
Ampyx | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Caeneus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | buried alive by centaurs, or killed himself | was formerly a woman called Caenis | |
Broteas | ✓ | ✓ | Centaur Gryneus | |||
Celadon | ✓ | ✓ | Centaur Amycus | |||
Charaxus | ✓ | ✓ | Rhoetus | |||
Cometes | ✓ | ✓ | Charaxus, his friend, accidentally | |||
Corythus | ✓ | ✓ | Rhoetus | |||
Crantor | ✓ | ✓ | Centaur Demoleon | |||
Cymelus | ✓ | ✓ | Nessus | |||
Dryas | ✓ | ✓ | son of Ares or Iapetus[12] | |||
Euagrus | ✓ | ✓ | Rhoetus | |||
Exadius | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Halesus | ✓ | ✓ | Latreus | |||
Hopleus | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Macareus | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Mopsus | ✓ | ✓ | [13] | ✓ | son of Ampycus and a seer | |
Orius | ✓ | ✓ | Centaur Gryneus | son of Mycale | ||
Pelates | ✓ | ✓ | a Lapith from Pella (in Macedonia) | |||
Periphas | ✓ | [14] | ✓ | |||
Phalereus | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Phorbas | [15][16][17] | ✓ | son of Triopas or of Lapithus, son of Apollo | |||
Polyphemus | son of Eilatus.[18] | |||||
Pirithous | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Prolochus | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Tectaphus | ✓ | ✓ | Phaecomes | son of Olenus | ||
Other allies | ||||||
Nestor | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Peleus | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Theseus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Footnotes
- ^ For such superfecundation, compare the siring of Theseus or Heracles. Of a supposed Parnassos, founder of Delphi, Pausanias observes, "Like the other heroes, as they are called, he had two fathers; one they say was the god Poseidon, the human father being Cleopompus."[4]
- ^ La foule nuptiale au festin s'est ruée, Centaures et guerriers ivres, hardis et beaux; Et la chair héroïque, au reflet des flambeaux, Se mêle au poil ardent des fils de la Nuée. Rires, tumulte ... Un cri ! ... L'Epouse polluée Que presse un noir poitrail, sous la pourpre en lambeaux Se débat, et l'airain sonne au choc des sabots Et la table s'écroule à travers la huée. Alors celui pour qui le plus grand est un nain, Se lève. Sur son crâne, un mufle léonin Se fronce, hérissé de crins d'or. C'est Hercule. Et d'un bout de la salle immense à l'autre bout, Dompté par l'oeil terrible où la colère bout, Le troupeau monstrueux en renâclant recule.[8]
References
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. iv.69.2.
Lapithes made his home about the Peneius river
- ^ Homer, Iliad xii.128.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. iv. 69; v. 61.
- ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece. x.6.1.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. iv.70.
- JSTOR 41544612.
- ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece. v.10.8.
- ^ de Heredia, José María. "Centaures et lapithes". Les Trophées. Archived from the original on 2009-03-15.
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ignored (help) - ^ Michelangelo. The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs. Art Renewal Center (picture of a bas-relief sculpture). Retrieved 1 December 2012.[dead link]
- National Gallery, London (image of painting). NG4890. Archived from the originalon 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
- Gaius Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica. 1.146.
- ^ Hyginus. Fabulae. 45 & 173.
- ^ Strabo. Geographica. 9.5.22.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. 4.69.2-3.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. 4.69.3.
- ^ Ovid. Metamorphoses. 12.322.
- ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece. 5.1.11.
- ^ Listed as an Argonaut in Apollonius of Rhodes. The Voyage of Argo.
Sources
- Smith, William, ed. (1870). "online text". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. II. p. 721. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- Ovid. Metamorphoses. XII passim.
- Homer. Odyssey. XXI, 330–340.
- Homer. Iliad. xii, 128, 181.
- Pausanias. Description of Greece. 1.17.2, 5.10.8.
- Strabo. Geographica. ix.39.
- Carmina[Odes]. i. 18. 5.
- Gaius Plinius Secundus. Natural History. IV: 8, 15; XXXVI: 5, 4.
- Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. iv.69–70; v. 61.
- Hyginus. Fabulae. 45 & 173.
- Gaius Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica. 1.146.
External links
- The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Lapiths and Centaurs)
- Media related to Centauromachy at Wikimedia Commons
- Media related to Lapiths at Wikimedia Commons