Editing Lapiths (section)

==Mythology==
=== Origin ===
The Lapiths were an [[Aeolians|Aeolian]] tribe who, like the [[Myrmidons]], were natives of Thessaly. The genealogies make them a kindred people with the [[centaurs]]: In one version, [[Lapithes (hero)|Lapithes]] (Λαπίθης) and [[Centaurus (Greek mythology)|Centaurus]] (Κένταυρος) 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 race of half-man, half-horse centaurs came. Lapithes was the [[eponym]]ous ancestor of the Lapith people,<ref>[[Homer]], ''Iliad'' xii.128.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=iv. 69; v. 61}}</ref> and his descendants include Lapith warriors and kings, such as [[Ixion]], [[Pirithous]], [[Caeneus]], and [[Coronus (Greek mythology)|Coronus]], and the seers [[Ampycus]] and his son [[Mopsus]].

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 (mythology)|Leonteus]] (son of Coronus, son of Caeneus). The mother of Pirithous, the Lapith queen in the generation before the [[Trojan War]], was [[Dia (mythology)|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.{{efn|
For such [[superfecundation]], compare the siring of [[Theseus]] or [[Heracles]]. Of a supposed Parnassos, founder of [[Delphi]], [[Pausanias (geographer)|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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=Description of Greece |at=x.6.1}}</ref>}}
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=iv.70}}</ref> The Lapiths were credited with inventing the [[Bridle|bridle's bit]]. The Lapith King Pirithous was marrying the horsewoman [[Hippodamia (wife of Pirithous)|Hippodameia]], whose name means "tamer of horses", at the wedding feast that made a war, the Centauromachy, famous.

===Centauromachy===
[[File:Sarcofago con centauromachia, II secolo, da procoio di pianabella, 01.JPG|thumb|472x472px|A centauromachy relief on an ancient Roman sarcophagus, {{circa|150}} AD, [[Museo Archeologico Ostiense]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Troso |first=Cristina |date=July–September 2007 |title=La Centauromachia del sarcofago della necropoli di Pianabella-Ostia: Considerazioni sulla iconografia |journal=Latomus |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=645–658 |jstor=41544612}}</ref>]]
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 [[Caeneus]] was originally a young woman named Caenis and the favorite of [[Poseidon]], who changed her into a man at her request, and made Caeneus into an invulnerable warrior. Such [[Amazons|warrior women]], indistinguishable from men, were familiar among the [[Scythian]] horsemen too. In the battle with the centaurs Caeneus proved invulnerable, until the Centaurs crushed him with rocks and trunks of trees. He disappeared into [[chthonic|the depths of the earth]] unharmed and was released as a sandy-headed bird.

In later contests, the Centaurs were not so easily beaten. Mythic references explained the presence into historic times of primitive Lapiths in [[Cape Maleas|Malea]] and in the brigand stronghold of Pholoe in [[Ancient Elis|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.