Lailaps

Lailaps ( Greek Λαΐλαψ , the storm wind ) is the name of an immortal dog in Greek mythology .

myth

Among the bridal gifts that Zeus made of Europa were a hunting spear that never missed its target and an immortal dog that no game could escape. These gifts came from Europe to their son Minos , the king of Crete . The latter, in turn, was once tormented by an illness which it was said that his wife Pasiphaë had imposed on him as a spell. Prokris healed the king and received a spear and dog in thanks; she named the animal Lailaps.

In another version, the gifts came from Artemis , the goddess of the hunt. Prokris was uncertain with her husband Kephalos fallen; The spear and the dog should serve to reconcile the two passionate hunters.

Prokris offers Cephalus the dog Lailaps and an infallible spear.
(Francesco Ruschi, 17th century)

After Prokris returned to Thorikos , she gave the two wonder weapons to Kephalus. At that time Thebes was haunted by a man-eating fox : every month the Thebans abandoned a child so that the monster would spare them. Then it came to pass that Amphitryon needed the assistance of the Theban king Creon ; this made it a condition that the plague be put to an end first and the fox killed. So Amphitryon asked Lailaps. The indefatigable dog took up the chase - but since the fox was unreachable, the hunt threatened to last forever. Finally, Zeus himself intervened and turned both animals to stone. It is also said that they were moved to the sky as the constellations Canis Major and Minor .

Lailaps is said to be identical to that "golden dog" ( Greek Κύων χρΰσεον ), which already played a role when Zeus grew up . For when the god was still a child, his mother Rhea hid him from his father Kronos : In a cave on Mount Ida the baby was nourished by the goat Amaltheia ; a golden dog protected them. After Zeus overthrew his father and took power on Olympus , the animal became the guardian of the Zeus sanctuary on Crete. The story of Pandareos tells how he stole the dog and brought it to Tantalos , and what an inglorious end the matter had.

In addition - and probably independently of it - one of the Aktaion's hunting dogs was named Lailaps.

swell

Ovid , Metamorphoses 7,745ff.

literature

Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Lailaps . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, column 1800 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Lailaps in the Theoi Project

Individual evidence

^ Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. I, p. 88. ISBN 3-423-01345-1
^ Hyginus Mythographus , Fabulae 189.
^ Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 108. ISBN 3-423-01346-X
↑ According to the Scholion zu Homer , Odyssey 19.518, made by Hephaestus , which represents a narrative contradiction, since Zeus is the father, whose sister Hera is at least the mother of Hephaestus.
^ Antoninus Liberalis , Metamorphoses 36.

[1] Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. I, p. 88. ISBN 3-423-01345-1

[2] Hyginus Mythographus , Fabulae 189.

[3] Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 108. ISBN 3-423-01346-X

[4] According to the Scholion zu Homer , Odyssey 19.518, made by Hephaestus , which represents a narrative contradiction, since Zeus is the father, whose sister Hera is at least the mother of Hephaestus.

[5] Antoninus Liberalis , Metamorphoses 36.