Lapith and a Centaur: a metope from the Parthenon

In Greek mythology, the Lapiths were a legendary race, whose home was in Thessaly on the mountain Pelion. Like the Myrmidons and other Thessalian tribes, the Lapiths were pre-Hellenic in their origins. The genealogies make them a kindred race with the Centaurs: in one version, Lapithes and Centaurus were said to be twin sons of the god Apollo and the nymph Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. Lapithes was a valiant warrior, but Centaurus was a deformed being who later mated with mares, from whom the half-man, half-horse Centaurs sprang. Lapithes was the eponymous ancestor of the Lapith race,^[1] and his descendants include Lapith warriors and kings, such as Ixion, Pirithous, Caeneus, and Coronus, and the seers Idmon and Mopsus. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 658 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2140 × 1950 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 658 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2140 × 1950 pixel, file size: 2. ... Metope from the Parthenon marbles depicting a Centaur and a Lapith fighting In classical architecture, a metope is the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze. ... The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... It may have been generated by a computer or by a translator with limited proficiency in English or the original language. ... The Myrmidons (or Myrmidones Μυρμιδόνες) were an ancient nation of Greek mythology. ... See also centaur (planetoid), Centaur (rocket stage) Guido Reni, Abduction of Deianira, 1620-21 In Greek mythology, the centaurs (Greek: Κένταυροι) are a race part human and part horse, with a horses body and a human head and torso (illustration, right). ... In Greek mythology, Centaurus was the founder of the Centaur race - a breed of half-men, half-horse warriors that inhabited northern Greece. ... Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum) In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or , Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a... Stilbe in Greek mythology was a nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus and the Naiad Creusa. ... In Greek mythology, Peneus (Πηνειός) was a river god, one of the three-thousand Rivers, a child of Oceanus and Tethys. ... See also centaur (planetoid), Centaur (rocket stage) Guido Reni, Abduction of Deianira, 1620-21 In Greek mythology, the centaurs (Greek: Κένταυροι) are a race part human and part horse, with a horses body and a human head and torso (illustration, right). ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... This article is about the Greek myth. ... In Greek mythology, Pirithous (also transliterated as Perithoos or Peirithoos) was the King of the Lapiths and husband of Hippodamia. ... Poseidon and Caenis, woodcut illustration of Ovid by Virgil Solis, 1563 In Greek mythology, Caeneus (Ancient Greek Καινεύς or Kaineus) was a Lapith hero and originally a Thessalonian woman, Caenis. ... Coronus is the name of four men in Greek mythology. ... In Greek mythology, Idmon was a seer who knew he would die if he joined the Argonauts. ... In Greek mythology, Mopsus was the name of two famous seers: Mopsus, son of Manto and Rhacius or Apollo Mopsus, a celebrated prophet, son of Manto and Rhacius or Apollo. ...

In the Iliad the Lapiths sent forty manned ships, 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,^[2] Pirithous had an immortal as well as a mortal father. Zeus was his immortal father, but the god had to assume a stallion's form to cover Dia^[3]for, like their half-horse cousins, the Lapiths were horsemen in the grasslands of Thessaly, famous for its horses. The Lapiths were credited with inventing the bridle's bit. In fact, the Lapith king Pirithous was marrying the horsewoman Hippodameia, "tamer of horses", at the wedding feast that a battle, the Centauromachy, made famous. title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... In Greek mythology, Polypoites or Polypoetes (Greek: Πολυποίτης) was the name of several individuals: Polypoites was a son of Hippodamia and Pirithous. ... The fall of Troy, by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769). ... Dia (bright sky) in Greek mythology was the mother of the Lapith Pirithous, whose marriage to Hippodameia was the occasion of the Lapiths battle with the Centaurs. ... In Greek mythology, Deioneus is either of two different people. ... This article is about the Greek myth. ... A bridle is a piece of equipment used to control a horse. ... Abduction of Hippodamia, Peter Paul Rubens, c. ...

Centauromachy

The best-known legend with which the Lapiths are connected is their battle with the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous, the Centauromachy. The Centaurs had been invited, but, unused to wine, their wild nature came to the fore. When the bride was presented to greet the guests, the centaur Eurytion leapt up and attempted to rape 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. In the battle the Lapith Cæneus was killed, and the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest. In Greek mythology, Eurytion referred to three different people. ...

Caeneus was a well-known Lapith, originally a girl named Cænis or Caenis and the favourite of Poseidon, who changed her into a man at her request and made her an invulnerable warrior. Such warrior women, indistinguishable from men, were familiar among the Scythian horsemen too (see the entry "Amazons") and survive among Albanian traditions. In the Centaur battle, Caeneus proved invulnerable, until the Centaurs simply crushed him with rocks and trunks of trees. He disappeared into the depths of the earth unharmed and was released as a sandy-headed bird. Poseidon and Caenis, woodcut illustration of Ovid by Virgil Solis, 1563 In Greek mythology, Caeneus (Ancient Greek Καινεύς or Kaineus) was a Lapith hero and originally a Thessalonian woman, Caenis. ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-Aryans known as the Scythians. ... The Amazons (in Greek, Αμαζόνες) were an ancient nation of female warriors or a society dominated by women, at the edges of Scythia in Sarmatia (Herodotus). ... Albanian myths can be divided into two major groups: legends of metamorphosis and historical legends. ... For other uses, see Chthon (disambiguation). ...

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 [1]. Cape Malea is a peninsula found in the southeast of the Peloponnese in Greece. ... Elis, or Eleia (Greek, Modern: Ήλιδα Ilida, Ancient/Katharevousa: Ήλις, also Ilis, Doric: Άλις) is an ancient district within the modern prefecture of Ilia. ... Coronus is the name of four men in Greek mythology. ...

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 wine, which must be tempered with water and drunk not to excess. The Greek sculptors of the school of Pheidias conceived of the battle of the Lapithae and Centaurs as a struggle between mankind and mischievous monsters, and symbolical of the great conflict between the civilized Greeks and Persian "barbarians". Battles between Lapiths and Centaurs were depicted in the sculptured friezes on the Parthenon, recalling Athenian Theseus' treaty of mutual admiration with Pirithous the Lapith, leader of the Magnetes, and on Zeus' temple at Olympia (Pausanias, v.10.2). The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs was a familiar symposium theme for the vase-painters [2]. A glass of red wine This article is about the alcoholic beverage. ... Phidias, (or Pheidias), son of Charmides, (circa 490 BC - circa 430 BC) was an ancient Greek sculptor, universally regarded as the greatest of Greek sculptors. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... Look up Barbarian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Theseus (Greek ) was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night. ... Ancient Greek tribe of the Thessalian Magnesia who took part in the Trojan War. ... Olympia among the principal Greek sanctuaries Olympia (Greek: Olympía or Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. ... Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means to drink together) but has since come to refer to any academic conference, whether or not drinking takes place. ... Krater (mixing bowl), 6th century BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens The pottery of ancient Greece is one of the most tangible and iconic elements of ancient Greek art. ...

A sonnet vividly evoking the battle by the French poet José María de Heredia (1842 – 1905) was included in his volume Les Trophées [3]. José María de Heredia (November 22, 1842 - October 3, 1905), French poet, the modern master of the French sonnet, was born at Fortuna Cafeyere, near Santiago de Cuba, being in blood part Spanish Creole and part French. ...

Battle of Centaurs and Lapiths, by Piero di Cosimo

In the Renaissance, the battle became a favorite theme for artists : an excuse to display close-packed bodies in violent confrontation. The young Michelangelo executed a marble bas-relief of the subject in Florence about 1492 [4]. Piero di Cosimo's panel (illustration) now at the National Gallery, London, ^[4] was painted during the following decade. If it was originally part of a marriage chest, or cassone, it was perhaps an uneasy subject for a festive wedding commemoration. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 223 pixelsFull resolution (4096 × 1143 pixel, file size: 444 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 223 pixelsFull resolution (4096 × 1143 pixel, file size: 444 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (c. ... The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. ... Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (c. ... Londons National Gallery, founded in 1824, its elegant dome and graceful colonnades,dominating the north side of Trafalgar Square, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings from 1250 to 1900. ... The cassone (large chest) was one of the trophy furnishings of rich merchants and aristocrats in Italian culture, from the late Middle Ages onward. ...

Notes

Homer (Greek: , ) was an early Greek poet and aoidos (rhapsode) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... Diodorus Siculus (c. ... Superfecundation is the fertilisation of two or more ova from the same cycle by sperm from separate acts of sexual intercourse. ... Theseus (Greek ) was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... Delphi (Greek Δελφοί, [ðe̞lˈfi]) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in a valley of Phocis. ... Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Diodorus Siculus (c. ...

References

• William Smith, ed. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) vol.11 p. 721 (on-line text)
• Ovid Metamorphoses XII passim; Odyssey XXI, 330 – 340; Iliad xii. 128, 181; Pausanias 1.7.2, 5.10.8; Strabo ix.39; Horace Carmine i. 18. 5 ; Pliny's Natural Historyiv. 8, 15, xxxvi. 5, 4.

Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC – Tomis, now Constanţa AD 17), a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Beginning of the Odyssey The Odyssey (Greek Οδύσσεια (Odússeia) ) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the Ionian poet Homer. ... Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... The Greek geographer Strabo in a 16th century engraving. ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... Naturalis Historia Pliny the Elders Natural History is an encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Lapiths

• Hellenic tribes
• Carlos Parada, "Lapiths": an annotated list of Lapith names, mainly in Metamorphoses, and some Lapith descendants
• The Battle painted on Greek vases