Lapithes

A son of Apollo and Stilbe, the brother of Centaurus, and husband of Orsinome, the daughter of Eurynomus, by whom he became the father of Phorbas, Triopas, and Periphas. He was regarded as the ancestor of the Lapiths in the mountains of Thessaly.1 They were governed by Pirithous, who being a son of Ixion, was a half-brother of the centaurs. The latter, therefore, demanded their share in their father's kingdom, and, as their claims were not satisfied, a war arose between the Lapiths and centaurs, which, however, was terminated by a peace. But when Pirithous married Hippodamia, and invited the centaurs to the solemnity, a bloody war, stirred by Ares, broke out between the Lapiths and centaurs, in which the latter were defeated; but the Lapiths were afterwards humbled by Heracles.

References

Notes

  1. Homer. Iliad xii, 128; Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library iv, 69, v, 61.

Sources

  • Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library iv, 70.
  • Homer. Odyssey xxi. 29; Iliad xii, 128, 181.
  • Horace. Odes, i, 18. 5.
  • Orphic. Argonautica, 413.
  • Ovid. Metamorphoses xii, 210 ff.
  • Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 7.2; v, 10.8.
  • Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia iv, 8, 15; xxxvi, 5, 4.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Strabo. Geography ix, p. 439.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.