Editing Lapiths (section)

== In art ==
[[File:Piero di Cosimo 015.jpg|thumb|442x442px|''Battle of Centaurs and Lapiths'', by [[Piero di Cosimo]] (notice the female [[centaur]] with a male centaur in the foreground).]]
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 Lapiths and Centaurs as a struggle between mankind and mischievous monsters, and symbolical of the great conflict between the civilized Greeks and "[[barbarian]]s". Battles between Lapiths and Centaurs were depicted in the sculptured metopes on the [[Parthenon]], recalling Athenian [[Theseus]]' treaty of mutual admiration with Pirithous the Lapith, leader of the [[Magnetes]], and on Zeus' temple at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=[[Description of Greece]] |at=v.10.8}}</ref> The Battle of the Lapiths and centaurs was a familiar ''[[symposium]]'' theme for the [[Greek vase|vase-painters]].

A sonnet vividly evoking the battle by the French poet [[José María de Heredia]] (1842–1905) was included in his volume ''Les Trophées''.{{efn|
''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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=de Heredia |first=José María |title=Les Trophées |work=Poésie Française |chapter=Centaures et lapithes |chapter-url=http://poesie.webnet.fr/poemes/France/heredia/12.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315200548/http://poesie.webnet.fr/poemes/France/heredia/12.html |archive-date=2009-03-15}}</ref>
}}
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.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=1565 |title=The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs |last=[[Michelangelo]] |type=picture of a bas-relief sculpture |access-date=1 December 2012 |url-status= |website=Art Renewal Center}}{{deadlink|date=September 2023}}</ref> [[Piero di Cosimo]]'s panel ''Battle of Centaurs and Lapiths'', now at the [[National Gallery, London]],<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG4890 |title=Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs |last=di Cosimo |first=Piero |type=image of painting |access-date=2012-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507123434/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng4890 |archive-date=2009-05-07 |url-status=dead |id=NG4890 |website=[[National Gallery, London]]}}</ref> 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. A frieze with a Centauromachy was also painted by [[Luca Signorelli]] in his ''[[Virgin Enthroned with Saints (Signorelli)|Virgin Enthroned with Saints]]'' (1491), inspired by a Roman sarcophagus found at [[Cortona]], in [[Tuscany]], during the early 15th century.