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{{Short description|Legendary people in Greek mythology}} {{About|the mythical tribe|the eponymous hero|Lapithes (hero)}} [[File:The Parthenon sculptures, British Museum (14063376069) (2) (cropped).jpg|thumb|250x250px|Metope from the [[Elgin Marbles]] depicting a [[Centaur]] and a Lapith fighting.]] The '''Lapiths''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|æ|p|ᵻ|θ|s}}; {{langx|grc|Λαπίθαι}}, ''Lapithai'', <small>[[Grammatical number|sing]].</small> Λαπίθης) were a group of legendary people in [[Greek mythology]], who lived in [[Thessaly]] in the valley of the [[Pineios (Thessaly)|Pineios]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=iv.69.2 |quote=Lapithes made his home about the Peneius river}}</ref> and on the mountain [[Pelion]]. They were believed to have descended from the mythical [[Lapithes (hero)|Lapithes]], brother of [[Centaurus (Greek mythology)|Centaurus]], with the two heroes giving their names to the races of the Lapiths and the [[Centaur|Centaurs]] respectively. The Lapiths are best known for their involvement in the ''Centauromachy'' ({{langx|grc|Κενταυρομαχία|Kentauromachía}}), a mythical fight that broke out between them and the Centaurs during [[Pirithous]] and [[Hippodamia (wife of Pirithous)|Hippodamia]]'s wedding. ==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. == 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. == List of Lapiths == {| class="wikitable" ! colspan="7" |Lapiths |- ! rowspan="2" |Names ! colspan="3" |Sources ! colspan="2" |Centauromachy ! rowspan="2" |Notes |- |Hesiod |Ovid |''Others'' |''Participant'' |''Killed by'' |- |[[Actor (mythology)|Actor]] | |✓ |<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Gaius Valerius Flaccus]] |title=Argonautica |at=1.146}}</ref> |✓ |Centaur [[Clanis (mythology)|Clanis]] | |- |[[Ampyx]] | |✓ | |✓ | | |- |[[Caeneus]] |✓ |✓ | |✓ |buried alive by centaurs, or killed himself |was formerly a woman called Caenis |- |[[Broteas]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Gryneus]] | |- |[[Celadon (mythology)|Celadon]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Amycus (centaur)|Amycus]] | |- |[[Charaxus]] | |✓ | |✓ |Rhoetus | |- |[[Cometes]] | |✓ | |✓ |Charaxus, his friend, accidentally | |- |[[Corythus]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Rhoetus]] | |- |[[Cymelus]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Nessus (mythology)|Nessus]] | |- |[[Dryas (mythology)|Dryas]] |✓ | | |✓ | |son of Ares or Iapetus<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hyginus |title=Fabulae |at=45 & 173}}</ref> |- |[[Evagoras (mythology)|Euagrus]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur Rhoetus | |- |[[Exadius]] |✓ |✓ | |✓ | | |- |[[Halaesus|Halesus]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Latreus]] | |- |[[Hopleus]] |✓ | | |✓ | | |- |[[Macar|Macareus]] | |✓ | |✓ | | |- |[[Mopsus]] |✓ |✓ |<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Strabo]] |title=[[Geographica]] |at=9.5.22}}</ref> |✓ | |son of Ampycus and a seer |- |[[Oreius (mythology)|Orius]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur Gryneus |son of Mycale |- |[[Pelates (mythology)|Pelates]] | |✓ | |✓ | |a Lapith from Pella (in Macedonia) |- |[[Periphas]] | |✓ |<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=4.69.2-3}}</ref> |✓ | | |- |[[Phalerus|Phalereus]] |✓ | | |✓ | | |- |[[Phorbas]] | | |<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=4.69.3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Ovid]] |title=[[Metamorphoses]] |at=12.322}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=[[Description of Greece]] |at=5.1.11}}</ref> |✓ | |son of Triopas or of Lapithus, son of Apollo |- |[[Polyphemus (Argonaut)|Polyphemus]] | | | | | |son of Eilatus.<ref>Listed as an Argonaut in {{Cite book |last=Apollonius of Rhodes |title=The Voyage of Argo}}</ref> |- |[[Pirithous]] |✓ | | |✓ | | |- |[[Prolochus (mythology)|Prolochus]] |✓ | | |✓ | | |- |[[Tectaphus]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Phaecomes]] |son of Olenus |- ! colspan="7" |Other allies |- |[[Crantor (mythology)|Crantor]] | |✓ | |✓ |Centaur [[Demoleon (mythology)|Demoleon]] |son of [[Amyntor (son of Ormenus)|Amyntor]] |- |[[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]] | |✓ | |✓ | | |- |[[Peleus]] | |✓ | |✓ | | |- |[[Theseus]] |✓ |✓ | |✓ | | |} == Footnotes == {{notelist}} == References == {{reflist|25em}} == Sources == * {{Cite book |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |year=1870 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |volume=II |page=721 |chapter=online text |chapter-url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1829.html |access-date=2007-01-28 |archive-date=2013-10-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016122123/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1829.html |url-status=dead }} * {{Cite book |last=[[Ovid]] |title=[[Metamorphoses]] |at=XII ''passim''}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Homer]] |title=[[Odyssey]] |at=XXI, 330–340}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Homer]] |title=[[Iliad]] |at=xii, 128, 181}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=[[Description of Greece]] |at=1.17.2, 5.10.8}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Strabo]] |title=[[Geographica]] |at=ix.39}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Horace]] |title=[[Carmina]] |at=i. 18. 5 |trans-title=Odes}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Pliny the Elder|Gaius Plinius Secundus]] |title=[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]] |at=IV: 8, 15; XXXVI: 5, 4}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=iv.69–70; v. 61}} * {{Cite book |last=Hyginus |title=Fabulae |at=45 & 173}} * {{Cite book |last=[[Gaius Valerius Flaccus]] |title=Argonautica |at=1.146}} ==External links== {{Commonscat|Lapiths}} *{{Commonscatinline|Centauromachy}} *[https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-006825 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Lapiths and Centaurs)] {{Authority control}} [[Category:Lapiths| ]] [[Category:Legendary tribes in classical historiography]]
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